Book 1: Twilight's First War
by Infection's Queen
Summary: Twilight was a fool, she knew it... But that wouldn't stop her from trying to fight her way back. She has been betrayed for the last time, no longer will the Element of Magic be held back or restrained. Power seems to be the universal rule now... But will she lose herself in the new ways she has been sheltered from for so long? Twi-Centric (Emotion Stunted-Power Hungry) Long Series
1. Chapter 1: World of War

**... Are these? These are actual words on paper? I am actually writing again?**

 **YES I AM! I am sorry for how long it has taken for me to get back to this... Life, work and college all got in the way of my writing. But I am back...**

 **I actually did not want to post this yet. Not until I had finished 3 chapters of this story off so I have something to fall back on. As it stands I have another 1 and 3/4 of the next chapters done. I have not forgotten my other storys, but it is very easy for me to lose intrest and not put as much effort into them. So for now, here is my brain child that I have been cultivating bit by bit for the last 2 years... Yeah, thats how busy I have been!**

* * *

Falling through a myriad of colours, Twilight Sparkle's mind, body and soul were assaulted by the incomprehensible power that was the Multiverse. She had long since sealed her eyes closed in pain, as her mind was not powerful enough to comprehend its power or its existence. She was inwardly cursing both her friends, her mentor, her family and herself at their stupidity.

She had foolishly confronted the imposter of Cadence at the wedding rehearsal, making herself out as an over paranoid mad-pony. Her friends, brother, tutor and even Spike had abandoned her without even bothering to confront her about her actions and suspicions. After breaking down into tears she was alone with Candace and then apologized to her. That was when all her suspicions were proven correct, as the imposter banished her here.

Her equine form had long since shifted through multiple shapes and forms as she tried to think of a possible way back to her own reality, she was one of the few ponies who believed in the concept of multiple dimensions' parallel to their own and could see a sort of irony from her current situation.

She screamed in agony as her she felt her magic core rip and tear apart. Forcing her eyes open, only to be blinded by the bright colours…

However, her purple eyes locked onto a single spot of shadows, the darkness easing her burning eyes as she unconsciously moved to it. So, entrapped within the darkness and pain, she never noticed as her magic core slowly repaired itself and a new core was made next to it.

The longer she stared into the darkness, the quicker her mind became blank before she fell into a slumber.

* * *

 **Konoha hospital – Land of Fire – Element Nations**

Inoichi Yamanaka, head of the Yamanaka clan was currently pacing up and down the halls of the Villages main hospital as he tried to cope with what all men fear; the birth of their child. His wife had gone into labour suddenly this mourning and he had rushed Sumiye, his wife, straight to the hospital.

His worries surrounded his wife, the child and the child's potential future. The clan heir would be forced to become a Ninja for the village; there was no denying that as much as he wanted it not to happen. He was also worrying if he was going to be a good father. Chōza had already briefed him on all the basics as his son, Choji, had been born several months prior.

He was brought from his thoughts when a nurse stuck her head out of the door and beckoned him in. Eagerly following he was greeted to the sight of his panting wife lying on a hospital bed, gently cradling a small bundle of blankets.

He slowly approached his wife and smiled when she moved the bundle to show a small, sleeping baby with platinum blond hair. He was a father; it only just started to sink in. He is a dad, he has a beautiful baby girl and he knew exactly the kind of dad he was going to be.

"We have a girl, our very own daughter." His wife said as she gently stroked the child's head. This caused the child to stir, opening groggy, bright purple, pupil-less eyes to the world. The girl looked at the two people in something akin to confusion before her eyes closed again as sleep claimed her.

A doctor walked over holding a clipboard and pen. "Yamanaka-Sama, what is the name of the child?" He asked without looking up from his board.

Sharing a look with his wife, Inoichi and Sumiye nodded to one another, having already decided on names beforehand.

"Ino, Ino Yamanaka." They said in unison.

* * *

 **Yamanaka Compound – Land of Fire – Element Nations – Five Years Later**

Ino Yamanaka was annoyed, at five years old there should be very little that could annoy a child. Her annoyance stemmed from the fact she kept seeing things that should not be there. Like when she often played with the shy boy, Choji, she sometimes saw a yellow Pegasus. Alternatively, when she sometimes saw the village pariah, Naruto, she sometimes saw a bright pink horse with a cotton candy like mane.

She had always been a smart child, learning to walk quickly, fluently speaking by two years old and using charka subconsciously to help her movements… Ok, so she was considered a genius who had already had down the basic Yamanaka technique at the age of four… Though that did nothing for her apparent lack of emotion.

She could absorb information at an accelerated rate; this allowed her to learn quicker than normally possible. She preferred to spend a lot of time in library's learning all she could, her bedroom was spotless and she was never told off for being messy thus never drawing her parents anger for little things. She knew she was not normal by any means of the word, she sometimes found herself in different locations without any known means of transportation when scared and she could move objects without needing to touch them.

She would also see flashes of strange images. She had originally put these flashing images off as her imagination getting away from her, but they had become more and more common – Hell there were even damn songs playing in her dreams.

Sighing in frustration she went to bed annoyed.

Half way through the night, as she tossed and turned in her sleep, memories her soul had long since forgotten and repressed burst through her mind. She woke up panting as her life as Twilight Sparkle flashed through her mind, overlapping with her life as Ino Yamanaka.

She had to thank her Yamanaka heritage as her mind began to sort the memories.

* * *

 **Three Months Later**

It had taken three painstaking months for her mind to adjust to the new memories. Using a basic Yamanaka clan technique, she could access her mindscape where she began sorting her memories from her time as Twilight to her current ones as Ino to accelerate the process. She also hid her memories as Twilight to keep it a secret from the rest of her new clan.

Her personality had long since become been changed from the assault it suffered within the multiverse, as one's personality was directly tied in with one's soul. This had changed her personality greatly, making her colder and indifferent to a lot of things, she still found joy in research and spending time doing certain things, but her idea of joy and happiness had changed greatly since her time as a pony, leaving a hole inside her for where some of her emotions once laid.

After waiting for her mind to settle she began reading through everything in the Clan library, memorising every book and scroll possible. Twilight's thirst for knowledge being stronger than ever before with her access to new information and a completely new energy source.

Her current goal, aside from trying to return to her own dimension, was to learn everything she could about chakra.

Twilight had been very happy to learn her magic still worked in this world without having her horn. She was fascinated with the energy Chakra, which had torn her magic core in two to make a new core to house the energy. Originally, this had meant that she was at half her original capacity for her mana, however she found that due to the damage she was passively absorbing mana out of the atmosphere to accelerate its restoration. This had the side effect of forcing it to also grow to accommodate her magic, allowing it to rapidly reach its original amount and continue to grow.

After researching the aspects of chakra and learning that it's comprised of physical and spiritual energy's she began wondering what her magic was classed as due to the fact her magic was separate from her chakra and there was in fact magic in this world.

She had been practicing her magic in private as much as possible, trying to think of a way to get back to her own world.

But for now, she would train as much as possible to make her new _father_ happy, scared of the possibility of him finding out about her true nature. This also helped in proving her worth to her new clan, as they had access to more content in the village archives, where they stored any new and recorded Jutsu.

* * *

 **Ninja Academy – Land of Fire – Element Nations – Ino is 8 years' old**

Twilight was cursing at this embarrassment of an academy with everything she could think of. She was being forced to go through everything at a kindergartener level, and she was not impressed at all with the curriculum after subtly using the **Shintenshin no Jutsu** (Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Technique) on one of the tutors she caught sleeping earlier and looked through the following few years planned lessons.

The most they would be taught would be the academy's Taijutsu style, the very basic of chakra control and three E-Rank techniques; **Bunshin no Jutsu** (Clone Technique), **Henge no Jutsu** (Transformation Technique) and the **Kawarimi no Jutsu** (Substitution Technique).

She had already managed to master the clone and transformation techniques by using her illusion spells as bases to help her control her chakra to perform the techniques with the minimal need for hand seals, while she used her custom teleportation as a guide to help learn the Substitution Technique.

After she learnt about the Fourth Hokage's **Hiraishin no Jutsu** (Flying Thunder God Technique) and its similarities to her teleportation, she knew she would need to begin acting like an actual Kunoichi (Female Ninja) and hide her magic as she could teleport without the need of a Marker.

She had been reading up on the laws of Konoha, and by the council's standards, she would be eligible for the CCA (Clan Creation Act).

She would become a baby factory.

She was drawn from her thoughts as a man of average height and build walked in. He had black hair that was kept in a ponytail, dark eyes and a scar that ran across the bridge of his nose. He was wearing the standard Konoha Shinobi uniform. Following him was another man with white, shoulder-length hair that had a slight hint of blue and green eyes. He too wore the standard attire of the Konoha-Nin but his forehead protector was stylized like a bandanna.

She knew they were coming; it was something else she gained from this new body. Apparently, Yamanakas were normally natural Sensory Type ninjas, meaning that they could detect Chakra fluctuations and be able to discern the direction it was being used from in a limited range.

However, Twilight was a bit different, it might have been a side effect of her magic on her human body but she could sense chakra no matter what. It did not matter if it be a Kage or a civilian, she could sense them.

She could tell where someone was and what their current chakra levels were and if she focused it on a single person; she could perceive her targets movements by examining the way their chakra flow through their body. She had a working theory that she would be able to tell if someone was lying by checking on his or her chakra flow and can tell when someone is under a Genjutsu.

Slowly the other children calmed down and watched the two Ninja with something akin to awe. Inwardly making Twilight both wince and gag. _Was this how I acted around Celestia?_ She thought bitterly and with self-disgust.

The first man walked up with a smile on his face. "Hello, my name is Iruka Umino and this is my assistant Mizuki." He said as he motioned to the white haired man who smiled at them but Twilight could tell it was forced, being the daughter to an interrogator allowed her access to analyzation techniques and how to spot when people are lying, and while she was not an expert, Mizuki's demeanour betrayed him.

He did not want to be here.

"We will be your tutors for the next four years; we are here to help turn you into fine Shinobi." Iruka continued while still smiling. "Now we are going to take attendance. Call out when you hear your name."

She ignored most of the names as she could tell some of them acted like children while talking about saving Princesses.

"Aburame, Shino?"

"Here." Called a boy wearing a large coat with a high collar, and a pair of sunglasses. ' _An Aburame huh? Fluttershy would love their clan.'_ Twilight silently mused to herself.

"Akimichi, Chōji?"

"Here!" Said a slightly plump child sitting next to her. ' _You shouldn't be so timid.'_ Which was true, it felt like trying to get Fluttershy out of her shell again, very annoying.

"Haruno, Sakura!"

"Here." Said a small voice coming from a small pink haired girl a few seats ahead of her. ' _A civilian-born with larger than average chakra reserves, I wonder what she's doing here?'_ Which was a good question, not many ninjas originated from civilian families as most came from merchant or clans.

"Hyūga, Hinata?"

"H-here sir!" Called a very tiny voice from the corner of the classroom where a small girl with pale, pupil-less lavender eyes sat with dark blue hair. ' _A Hyūga who isn't as stuck up as Blueblood? Now there's something you don't see every day.'_

"Inuzuka, Kiba?"

"Here!" Called a loud voice from a boy with feral fang markings and messy brown hair. ' _He had better not become a hormonally driven boy when he is older, that is why Tsume-Sama killed her husband when he became a little too grabby with another girl and selling secrets to Iwa.'_ Twilight thought with an amused smirk.

"Nara, Shikamaru?"

"Here." Drawled out a lazy voice coming from the other side of Chōji, leaning over she found a black-haired boy with pineapple ponytail sleeping on the desk. ' _Good to see you never change Shika'. Your brain must use so much energy that you're always tired.'_ She thought with a smirk.

"Uchiha, Sasuke?"

"Hmn." Grunted out a black haired boy whose hair was reminiscent of a duck's butt? Twilight groaned as every girl apart from her and Hinata swooned at the brooding emo.

Now while she had no love for the Uchiha, she would admit to having jealously towards the clan's **Sharingan** (Copy Wheel Eye) eye's. The ability to imitate any technique they see and then improve upon them should they practice was something that Twilight would love to have, the thought of the amount of spells and techniques she could learn was salivating to her inner scientist.

"Uzumaki, Naruto?"

"HERE!" Shouted a blond boy with goggles on his head. ' _Strange… he has two Chakra sources; one is his normal core while there is another in his stomach, the both of them are gigantic in size, his main is at least Chūnin and the second one is even larger – it's like an ocean of malicious energy.'_ She analysed with a frown marring her face.

"Yamanaka, Ino?"

"Here Iruka-Sensei." She called out with more respect than her fellow students did as she adopted an indifferent look on her face and pulled out a book from her weapons pouch, something every clan heir already wore.

Since she researched the other Hokages, she had been researching the only active member of the Senju clan: Tsunade Senju. After learning of the woman's great prowess in both the battlefield and in a hospital room, Twilight began to emulate her.

She wanted to be similar to Tsunade in the aspect that she could heal as well as destroy. She had asked her _father_ , being the ' _Daddy's-Girl'_ she is, for harder chakra control techniques so she could eventually qualify to become a Medic Nin.

She felt little for manipulating Inoichi, he wasn't her actual father, just the father to her body. She knew that she should feel bad but she just couldn't bring herself to be.

In addition, while she already had excellent control due to having to learn extensive control for her immense magical power which she would gage herself at Low-Jōnin amounts with High-Jōnin control, that only allowed her to have Low-Chūnin levels of control with her Chakra being at High-Genin amounts.

So, using these techniques and reaching the same level of control as Tsunade would not only turn her into a powerhouse in Chakra control, but also send her control over magic to untold levels.

Currently, she was reading a book on the biology of the human body, silently swearing to get more medical books at her library in Ponyville. She needed to have a great understanding in the medical field and would need low Jonin levels of control to qualify to learn Medical Ninjutsu, never mind wanting to work in the Hospital.

Her ' _father'_ had said something that stuck with her when she said she wanted to be a Medic-Nin.

 _"When you have one hundred ways to heal a person, you have a thousand ways to kill them."_

While she inwardly frowned every time, she thought of killing, she realized just how versatile being a medic would be for her. She could pose as a normal doctor and silently remove a target when they place their complete trust in her to heal them. She could target specific areas on the body to disable a target, cause great pain or straight kill them.

Twilight ignored everything going on around her as she read her book, while getting annoyed at how quickly she was processing it. She would run out of useful information without any other books while in this farce of an academy, and if that happened then she would become very difficult to live with.

* * *

 **Two hours later**

Twilight was munching on a stick of Dango while sitting in the shade of a tree as she was reading a scroll on advanced Chakra control that she had copied from her clan library. She had managed to amuse herself after finishing her biology book in class by sticking random things to her body with Chakra, increasing her control while subtly telling the tutors she was ahead of the class.

To her annoyance, the entire lesson was about the history of Konoha, it was nothing more than preaching and gloating at how their village was the best with plenty of censored areas that was basically brainwashing.

She was looking forward to next lesson as they would begin the physical training and she would be able to decide how to develop her own fighting style. She only took the basics of Pony-Fu and she could not use that here as a human.

She was drawn from her thoughts as Iruka called her over to the training field, where a selection of weapons was laid out on a table.

She walked over while rolling her scroll up and depositing it back in her weapon pouch. Joining her classmates, she watched as Mizuki set up several realistic looking dummies' down the field by a few meters with a target painted on the chests.

"Ok class." Iruka called getting their attention. "We are going to test your physical abilities with Kunai, we are not expecting you to actually hit the target as some of you will probably have no training in this so don't feel bad if you fail." He said as he walked over to the table of Kunai, picking one up he twirled it in his fingers before casually flicking it into the centre of the target. Drawing awed sounds from some of the children but just making Twilight stare blandly at the target.

These Chūnin were here to teach them to kill yet the fool wants them to hit the dummy in the chest, more specifically the sternum. A normal Kunai or Shuriken would possible fracture or break the bone but it's an injury that could be recovered from or even ignored while in a fight due to the chakra that could be enhancing an enemy Nin's body or the standard chainmail that most Ninjas wear.

Aiming a little to either side would give the assailant more chance of striking one of the lungs through the ribcage with a bit of luck, and with a bit more force it could possible scratch or pierce the heart on the left side.

It no longer disturbed Twilight that she thought of killing in such a professional and detached manor, the void in her emotions certainly helped with that. While she could still feel joy and other positive emotions, she couldn't really feel that bad about the idea of taking a life. She in no way liked the thought, but it didn't bother her in the way she knew it should do.

She knew that when the situation arises that she would probably feel bad about taking a life.

She had already resigned herself to the fact that she would probably take a life in this world before she would be able to escape back to her world. That was why she wanted to be a Medic-Nin, to save instead of take.

Twilight watched dully as the other children walked up one by one and threw five Kunai each, some of them hitting close to the centre while others flew past the target or the odd one that flew behind them. The clan heirs all did noticeably better than the others did.

Walking up to the table, Twilight took one of the Kunai and began running simulations and equations in her head as she analysed the Kunai's weight, the distance between her and the target, and speed and direction of the wind. While this was impractical in the field, it would be useful for ingraining it into muscle memory and instinct, allowing her body to perform the calculations on instinct.

She already had some Kunai skills, as her _Dad_ did not want his precious daughter to be harassed by boys coming after for her beauty. Taking aim, she threw the small blade and purposely made it cut through the left External Carotid Artery, slicing into the side of the neck and lodging it there.

Picking up the next blade she ran through the calculations again as she spun the knife by the ring at the end of the handle, giving it more momentum. Before launching the blade, and embedded it into the dummy's right eye, burying it half way up the blade.

Picking up the last three Kunai, she spun and began throwing them in rapid succession, hitting the right shoulder, right kidney and the left knee in a slightly sloppy fashion. Twilight panted as she walked back to crowd of children, all who looked at her in something akin to bewilderment.

"Well done Ino-Kun, you're the only one who hit all five times." Iruka exclaimed in slight happiness, it was true as the best was Sasuke with four out of five. "Next time can you aim for the target tho-" he trailed off as he pulled out the Kunai, slowly comprehending what she had done.

Twilight looked at him with a raised eyebrow as her dull purple eyes met his. "If that is what you want Sensei, but I did specifically target one kill spot, one potentially disabling and extremely damaging spot, one permanent disabling and two limb disabling areas." She said coldly as stared at the man who was looking at her in shock.

"The center of the chest is a bad spot to aim at as the chest cavity provides some protection and most ninja wear chain-mesh Armour and would need more force to break through with a standard Kunai. It would either need extra force behind it or the blade being enhanced with Chakra." She said as she stood next to Chōji who was eating a bag of chips and Shikamaru who was napping in the shade of a tree.

Iruka looked at her in mute horror as the rest of the civilian students looked at her in something akin to terror while the Clan heirs were nodding to her choices.

Iruka stared at her in horror, a child knew and had the skill to both disable and kill an opponent. Shaking his head, he could not help but ask. "Ino, how did you know to target these areas?"

Twilight's eyebrow twitched, before she pulled out the Human Biology book she read earlier. "I'm studying to be a Medical Ninja. I finished reading this earlier and I have been memorizing the human body over the last few days."

"My first Kunai was aimed for the External Carotid Artery on the left side of the neck: a major artery that carries blood to the brain. The second Kunai I aimed at the eye and Optical nerve that connects directly to the brain, if the blade goes far enough it could damage the frontal lobe, while not fatal can cause permanent brain damage. The kidney injury is survivable but could stop the organ from filtering waste from the blood stream, managing a person's blood pressure and stimulates the bone marrow to produce blood for the body, all are vital for the body in the long run. My final two kunai were positioned to limit movement and remove the use of an arm, limiting their weapon capabilities and Jutsu usage." She explained as she placed the book back in her pouch while some of the clan heirs looked at her with bobbing heads while the civilians looked at her in horror.

Looking back over the other students, Twilight could not help but scoff at them. With a sneer on her pretty face, she addressed them. "Most of you are in this academy of your own free will, most of you had the choice to go to a civilian school. We are going to be trained as Ninja; we will be killers, thieves and mercenaries. We will be taught to fight, to kill and to steal so to any of you with delusions that the Shinobi life is luxurious and you will be off saving princesses then you need a reality check." She lectured as everyone; even Shikamaru was looking at her in a form of wonder and fascination.

"What we learn to do will not be pretty, life never is. I suggest you begin to mature quickly as at this very moment there are children in other villages who are receiving similar if not more intense training than this. You may very well be clashing blades with these people in a few years, remove your fantasy's and accept reality." She continued as she leaned next to Shikamaru in the shade of a tree, and closed her eyes. Following Shikamaru's previous example and take a nap, ignoring the awed looks she was receiving.

Her speech was more directed at herself towards the end, she had realised that no matter what happens there is always suffering, fantasies will only get you so far and Twilights main fantasy was to be able to rely on her friends no matter what…

That fantasy had long since been shattered.

* * *

 **Jonin Meeting – Hokage Tower – Same Time**

The village's Jonin and the Hokage stared into his crystal ball in awe as they listened to a child provide a detailed description as to disable and potentially kill an opponent. The all paid close attention to how she effectively shattered the other children's dreams and ideals about what a Shinobi does.

"Well." Kakashi Hatake spoke, breaking the stunned silence. "That is going to shatter a few dreams." He continued with an upbeat tone in his voice.

Asuma Sarutobi shook his head at the man's comment. "While that may be true Kakashi, do you need reminding just how you used to act at that age?" He asked with a slight edge to his voice as he smoked his cigarette. Ino was likely going to be on his Genin team and he could already see potential in her, hell, everyone could. The last person who made such a statement in the academy was Itachi Uchiha who completed the entire academy curriculum in a single year.

"I know." He drawled out. "But that was a time of war, we are in a state of relative peace and here is an eight-year-old who has – according to her, the working knowledge of potential the entirety of a human body." He added as his one eye narrowed on the sleeping image of the blonde-haired person in question. "She must be more of a prodigy than I was at that age. Hokage-Sama, what Jutsu does she know at the moment?" He asked; referring to the fact a student has to reveal what they knew for educational purposes.

Taking a puff of his pipe, Hiruzen began leafing through the academy admission forums until he found the one belonging to Ino Yamanaka. "Let's see, she already knows the **Bunshin no Jutsu** , **Henge no Jutsu** and the **Kawarimi no Jutsu**. She already has the basics of her clan techniques, as well already accomplishing their **Shintenshin no Jutsu**. Her Chakra control is Low-Chunin while she is High-Genin in reserves, quite odd for an eight-year-old – never mind her being a girl with lower reserves, they also seem to be growing rather quickly. She has some skills in **Shurikenjutsu** but if any of you were paying attention, she paused in her first two throws for more accuracy." He listed off with a very impressed tone.

"According to her father she has been asking for books on biology for about a month, she must have read that book cover to cover and memorised it completely as she only got it about a week ago. In addition, she has already proven that she can apply this knowledge to the field as proven with the dummy." He continued with a very impressed look on his face.

"She hasn't had any physical training other than basic fitness exercises. Her speed in hand seals are at a mid Genin level and she managed to figure out the **Wall Walking** exercise herself after seeing a member of her clan perform it. She was tested and found to be a sensor type… Academically, she aced every entrance exam with perfect scores – her father, Inoichi, mentioned she has something of a Photographic memory, bordering on that of an Eidetic Memory…" He trailed off with contemplative look.

"With a few months of physical training and more advanced control techniques she could very well be ready to pass the academy early and be able to qualify for an apprenticeship with the hospital." He evaluated as he thought back to his lone female student, Ino was everything that Tsunade wanted in a medic.

All the Jōnin shared shocked looks. It was very rare to find a Shinobi with that much potential.

Asuma stared in shock at his father. "You're not seriously considering letting her do that are you?" He asked incredulously, a fresh Genin should not be able to do that, never mind finishing the academy three years early.

Sarutobi's glaring eyes locked with his sons; while he loved him to bits; it was annoying when he forgot his place while on duty. "I am very well tempted to ask if that is what she wants, and what right do you have, Jōnin, to question mine or her decision?" He hated having to remind his son of his place.

Asuma reeled back slightly, embarrassed at his mistake.

The elderly Kage sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We will wait one month, if she appears to be held back by the class's level then she can perform an escalation exam if she wishes." He decided as he worked through his options.

An escalation exam had not happened since Itachi was in the academy; even then, he only remained in the higher class for two months before taking the exam again and moving up another year group. He followed that pattern and completed all of the required exams in a single year.

* * *

 **Hospital – Land of Fire – Element Nations – Ino is 10 years' old**

Twilight was happy, very happy. She had passed the final escalation exam and been accepted into an apprenticeship under a Medic Nin in the hospital. She had also passed the Genin exam, meaning she could take D-Rank Ninja missions within the village.

While it had annoyed her that it had taken a year more than expected to pass, she was glad that she would begin learning something useful. The only reason she finished a year later than originally predicted was due to her inexperience and her body's lack of physical training, most of the time spent was physically training her body and refining her chakra control to new levels.

She had proven herself leaps and bounds above the rest of the class, after a month Iruka approached who told her of the Escalation Exam which she was all too eager to take it. She had made a few new acquaintances in her first class and they were annoyed when she moved up in her class but understood once she explained as to why she was moving up.

She had spent the next year with the older students; she decided that accelerating too quickly would only lead to problems so she spent time with these students as she was learning basic Genjutsu during that year to help refine her chakra control outside her body.

She became relatively close to two people in that group: Tenten and Rock Lee. She got along with Tenten and held a friendly rivalry with her when they both shared their desires to become great like Tsunade. She got on with Lee; as she was one of the few who actively encouraged him instead of bully him.

They also helped each other while training. Tenten would teach her about different weapons, and help her learn to wield them effectively. While Twilight would help her with her Chakra control and becoming her sparring partner.

While she would train along with Lee in Taijutsu and she helped him learn to dispel Genjutsu and use the minimal Chakra he could use to **Wall Walk** to help compensate for his inability with Nin and Genjutsu.

Twilight decided that she would focus in on **Acrobatics** for her Taijutsu due to her simply not having the body to perform the hard-hitting moves that Lee focused on. She would train her body to become as flexible as possible every day with a two-hour work out to help train her body.

That year Twilight learned she could truly hate someone other than her old… _friends_. Neji Hyūga was someone you did not want to cross, and she did so by simply being younger and considered a greater genius than he was. He made himself clear that he did not believe her to be ready to be in the same class as him, this lead to her testing a basic sound based Genjutsu of her own creation on him. Using whistling as a medium to get him to leave her alone, also proving her theory that he relied on his clan's precious **Kekkei Genkai** too much.

After her year was up with them, she entered the final year group but never got even relatively close to anyone there, as she focused all her time and energy into refining her skills and knowledge for the final Genin exam.

She was not happy that she had to take the Seduction classes, though she did find them fun and found it very funny when the other girls acted in disgust when learning about sex and how they might need to seduce a target when they join the Ninja ranks. It was during these classes that she found more differences between her original world and this one.

While she already knew that this world was a warring world; her previous world she considered to be 'Child Friendly'. Sex was only ever used for reproduction in Equestria, not for pleasure with their partner… or by themselves.

Upon completing the academy, her chakra reserves had reached Low-Chunin while her control had reached Low-Jonin. Her strength had reached High-Genin levels thanks to training alongside Lee. She had become much more experienced in **Shurikenjutsu** and gained basic experience with most Ninja tools and weapons and even trained with a bow and arrow in her spare time for fun and became quite adept with them.

She had studied with her _father_ to create stronger mental barriers as well as improve her skills with her clan's mind based Ninjutsu. She had also memorised literally everything she could find about the human body, and had already begun her training in actual Medical Techniques, and already revived a dead fish with the **Shōsen no Jutsu** (Mystical Palm Technique) in private.

She completely fried two dozen dead fish, which she would admit tasted good even if she did use to be an herbivore.

She became competent in casting Genjutsu, making it a point to learn both area of effect illusions and targeted ones to help her when healing patients in the field.

After passing the final exam, she had expected to be in Genin squad under a Jonin Sensei. To her shock, she was first in line for an apprenticeship. This was due her registered Jonin Sensei set to teach the next **Ino–Shika–Chō** squad, which she would be in alongside Shikamaru Nara and Chōji Akimichi.

She had woken up and went straight to the hospital at seven o'clock in the morning, mainly to arrive on time but to avoid her _father_ who had been dotting around her praising her to the moon and back about her genius.

Walking into the Hospital, greeting her was the sight of a single doctor waiting, leaning against the main counter. Walking up the man, she tried portraying herself as a professional… well as professional as a ten-year-old could be.

"Hello Doctor-San, I was told to report here first thing this morning." She said as she subtly tightened the Leaf headband around her waist, causing the metal plate to shine a little.

The doctor looked at her and the headband several times before sighing. "So, you're the new apprentice, hope you're happy with your choice kid. The Hokage has placed a lot of faith and pulled more than a few strings to get you here." He said as he turned and picked up a clipboard from the counter. His eyes focused on her with a slight glare. "You better be worth the trouble he went through."

Twilight just stared at the man with a blank look while internally she was shouting at him in rage.

 _'How dare he? I worked my flank off to get here and I will not squander this opportunity! I'll show you!'_ She thought with an incredible amount of anger while she began to follow the man through the hospital.

She was lead to a room, where she was promptly abandoned by the man and told to go in as he left with a barely concealed sneer. Ignoring the insufferable medic, she knocked on the door and waited for a muffled "Enter." from one of the two-chakra signatures within.

Entering the room, she laid her eyes on two medics: one was a brown haired, blue-eyed nurse wearing a pink nurse gown with low Chūnin chakra reserves looking in her mid-twenties.

The other was a man looking to be in his late teens. A pair of black rimmed circular glasses protected his onyx eyes; his ash-grey hair was styled into a ponytail with his bangs covering little parts of his headband. He wore a dark purple sleeveless-shirt with a high collar with a white undershirt and dark purple trousers, held up by a white waistcloth and standard Shinobi sandals.

The thing that intrigued her the most was his Mid-Jōnin reserves of dark Chakra, _very dark_. She had to suppress a shudder when examining the energy; it was twisted and stemmed from the man's nature. However, the strangest part was that the energy – while twisted it was not twisted of its own free will, and felt lost in nature. Meaning he had been though a very traumatic experience, and was never treated.

"Hello, my name is Ino Yamanaka and I am here to start my apprenticeship." Twilight said with a small bow.

The nurse smiled at her and bowed too "A pleasure Ino-San, my name is Arisa Shirane and this is Kabuto Yakushi." She said while motioning to the man who bowed as well. "We will be testing you today to see what you know and what you need to know before you begin your course." She said as she motioned to the table where Twilight found something she had become very acquainted with in the last few weeks.

A dead fish with a barrel of fish off to the side with a bowl of water to the other side.

Kabuto smiled to her. "We will begin with the **Shōsen no Jutsu**. You have the needed level of Chakra control to achieve it and the signs are a Modified Ox." He said as he showed the sign. "Followed by the Tiger, normally there might be seals that follow but for now we don't need to go into that. Now what you are going to do is attempt to revive a dead fish." He explained as he pulled out another dead fish from the barrel and showed the technique in action with a green glow enveloping his hands and the fish, causing the fish to begin flopping about after the green glow left it.

He turned back to her with a kind smile on his face after he placed the fish in the bowl of water. "Don't worry if you can't get it right the first time, I never did." He reassured her as she moved over to the dead animal. The nurse picked up a clipboard and pen, waiting to evaluate her probably.

Twilight calmly went through the hand-seals while carefully channelling her chakra through her hands, causing a green glow to envelope them. She gently raised her hands over the fish and began pumping the animal's heart while restarting the electrical signals within the fish and repairing any of the damaged tissue. A few moments later the fish began to twitch then flop around in panic and dehydration. Twilight stopped the technique and gently placed the fish into the bowl.

She turned back to the two medics who were staring at her in shock. "I might be a little too prepared." She admitted, which was true as she wanted to be as prepared as possible for any probability and being able to skip learning one the harder Medical Ninjutsu seemed like a good idea.

"When did you learn to do that?" Kabuto breathed out in shock. Medical Ninjutsu takes months to get to a decent level, the test was only to see how good her control was and her possible potential in the medical arts.

Twilight crossed her arms as she internally hid her worry. "I spent the last month learning this myself in private; my father gave me a scroll containing it for my last birthday." She said as she silently began dreading the worst.

Kabuto's face split into a large smile, she learned at a similar rate to him. It had taken him a month to learn the same technique but that was during a time of war so he had to learn quickly. She was also like him in the way they both seemed to crave knowledge, he'd seen Ino's records from the academy she read through books faster than an Akimichi through a bag of chips.

Oh yes, this girl has potential.

"Well done, marvellous work!" Kabuto congratulated as he examined the revived fish. Twilight already knowing the **Shōsen no Jutsu** would help decrease the needed time to train her.

Twilight's let a small smile grace her face. "Thank you, Kabuto-Sempai." She said in genuine gratitude.

"Now." Arisa spoke up after finding her voice. "You can skip the normally needed training for new Medic-Nin but you will still need to take the standard exam. It's just so we know if you need to go through any of the theory." She said as she led the Twilight to a desk with a rather large exam paper. "You will have two hours to complete the exam, we are ahead of schedule so you can have a half hour break if you want to ask Kabuto any questions that don't pertain to the exam." She explained as she sat behind a desk opposite the exam table.

Twilight blinked for a second before speaking. "How long have you been a Medic-Nin?" She asked.

"I have been able to do Medical Ninjutsu for longer than I have been an actual medical ninja, but around… six years now. My adoptive mother was the Captain of the Medic Corps and adopted me after I lost my memory during the last war." Kabuto answered as he leaned against the wall.

Twilight hummed in response. "If I do pass this exam then what will be expected of me and how would the apprenticeship progress?" She asked, wanting to know how she could prepare for the future.

Kabuto held his chin for a second before responding. "Well, you will be expected to work at least three days a week to gain experience while one day will be dedicated to advancing your knowledge and abilities. Another day will be free for you to do a few D-Rank missions and the weekend will normally be your own, but we do recommend you train a bit during your free time as you might be called in for an emergency." He explained before he pushed himself off the wall.

"While your apprenticeship will be under me and your lessons will depend on how well you do in the exam. We already know that you are good at the practical aspect but we do not know how you are on the theoretical side of things. If you need more experience, there then we will focus on that and only do a few hours of practical training." He finished, as he looked her with ominously glinting glasses.

Twilight nodded to that, it seemed to be a good system that balanced her time between learning on the job, learning in an educational environment and earning a little extra on the side and still having time for training and possible socializing.

They continued to talk for next half hour, learning little things about each other and what could be happening in the future of her apprenticeship.

"Ino-San." Arisa said, catching the two's attention. "Your breaks over now, you will have two hours to complete the test." She said as she sat at a desk opposite from her exam.

Twilight nodded as she sat down and began the exam.

* * *

 **Academy – Land of Fire – Element Nations – Ino is 12 years' old**

Twilight smirked as she walked through the Ninja Academy's doors again after two years.

Her exam to become a Medic-Nin had gone well with only failing a few questions she did not think would be in the test. She started learning the basics of the hospital with Kabuto after the paper had been marked, becoming acquainted with the other hospital staff that either treated her like a child or regarded her with annoyance and made it a point to give her the cold shoulder.

During her time off from working with Kabuto, she spent either: with Shikamaru and Chōji, or training with her _father_. She had learnt more of her clan's Mind arts and she began learning about Nature Transformation and discovered she had a dual nature for **Suiton** (Water Style) and **Doton** (Earth Style). She trained mercilessly in her elements until she could pull water from large bodies with only minor resistance and could manipulate the Earth in moderate quantities.

She had learned several new medical techniques from Kabuto and gained a new insight into the way a person's body functions. A year into her Apprenticeship, Kabuto had shown her what he called his 'pride and joy': The bone from a member of the Kaguya Clan of the Hidden Mist Village.

While she was initially quite disturbed about him owning a random person's bone, she too developed a similar fascination with the remains as Kabuto did. When chakra was introduced into the bone its density increased dramatically and when removed, it returned to normal levels.

Twilight had so many questions about the **Shikotsumyaku** (Dead Bone Pulse) such as how it worked, how does the bloodline create the mass for the user to create the excess bones and how was it controlled?

Kabuto too seemed to be trying to solve the same questions; he had apparently been trying to decipher it using genetics but wasn't making much progress.

Twilight on the other hand had already begun to make progress in dissecting the bone's true nature.

Chakra itself was made of two initial energies: **Yin** (Spiritual) and **Yang** (Physical). These two energies combined created chakra, which was then moulded for the user's needs and separately they could make techniques such as the **Shadow** or **Expansion** Jutsu from the Nara and Akimichi clans.

 **Genjutsu** (Illusionary Techniques) primarily use Yin to create a form within its energy that is then imprinted into the targets chakra network, normally within their eyes to make them see things that the caster wants them to see.

What many people don't realize is that there is more to combining the two than just creating offensive Ninjutsu and Genjutsu.

By using **Yin** to create a form, then by mixing **Yang** into the form you give it life. Someone could create something from nothing; this is what she found to happen when she channelled chakra into the bone. Her chakra was converted to the chakra of the original bone's owner and then used create calcium and collagen, which is then absorbed by the bone and compacted into its mass to make it stronger and denser. The chakra would control and direct the growth of collagen and then add the calcium to strengthen the bones. If controlled then the user would be able to use their chakra to create new bones and make them breach the skin, giving the user the ability to create weapons from their bones.

The bone created more bone from nothing.

Using this knowledge, Twilight was in theory able to recreate the **Shikotsumyaku** within her own body. The main reason she had not actually tried it was because she had no actual experience in controlling it, this meant that if she tried it she might turn herself into a tree of bones and destroy most if not all her internal organs.

However, this also opened a completely new array of opportunities for her. If she could recreate the ability to grow bones from nothing, then she could eventually recreate any bloodline that centred on chakra manipulation and the concept of the **Yin-Yang Release**.

She never shared her findings with Kabuto. While she felt bad about not sharing what should technically be his research, her inner scientist demanding she should, she still did not trust him.

After all, how on Earth was he able to get his hands on the DNA from a supposedly extinct clan?

However, apparently, he did not see their relationship in the same light. After all, he taught her the theory of his **In'yu Shōmetsu** (Yin Healing Wound Destruction) when she saw him heal a cut across his hand in seconds after an incident in the hospital.

While she didn't know all the science behind his version, she had observed the technique a few times over the first year and re-created a slightly slower version by recreating the functions.

Utterly astounding Kabuto when she showed him that she had achieved a much slower version of it by using an unrefined version of the **Yin-Release** which she was slowly mastering and making quicker.

While Kabuto's created new cells around the area where a wound would be using his muscles and blood vessels to help it along by converting small quantities of the plasma in his blood into the new cells, while hers relies on her training in the forgotten arts of Sage of the Six Paths: The **Yin-Yang Release**. Creating the new cells from her Chakra.

After that, he seemed to view her in a new light and was all too eager to try to befriend her past the relationship they had as Teacher and Student.

Which Twilight found very suspicious, she called him out on his sudden interest in her and he froze. His chakra went haywire for a second, fluctuating rapidly before settling. To Twilight this indicated that he was either nervous, or he had realised that he had made a mistake and calmed himself down rapidly.

Since then he still tried to befriend her more but was less obvious about it. She could sense that his chakra was becoming less twisted very slowly as she got to know him and as she interacted with him more and more, so while she was still suspicious she wanted to help him as a doctor.

She had spent a ridiculous amount of time in private training to increase her chakra capacity and even more to elevate her control to new heights. Her capacity had reached High-Chunin and her control to Mid-Jōnin bordering High-Jōnin.

She had been forced to learn how to perform the **Chakura no Mesu** (Chakra Scalpel) during an emergency in her second year. After spending more time with the technique, she could master it and remove the need for Hand-Seals, forming the blades in an instant at the cost of slightly more chakra.

Kabuto had mentioned that it was possible to use the Scalpel while in combat but refused to teach her how, saying that it would take too long to learn.

She had also come to terms with the fact that people die; she had seen several people, Ninja and Civilian alike die. Be it in their sleep or screaming and writhing in agony as she tried to save their lives with their blood covering her hands.

Handling her first death was very strange, she was unable to save a Ninja from a grievous wound, he died as she was trying to close the wound, leaving her hands stained with his blood.

She had stared at her hands in silent horror, while she was glad that she could feel that emotion, she rapidly and roughly stomped down on it as she had to rush to help someone else.

She had seen more death since her first, none as unsettling as the first, slowly she became use to it and she reached the point where she barely reacted, she did still fear the day when she would be the one who takes a life. But she was also becoming worried about her mental health, slowly becoming _used_ to death was not something she had planned to happen.

She had learned **Water Walking** from her _father_ , as she needed more control for her clan's Ninjutsu.

She was also astounded when she practiced her magic. Its potency had become astronomical and her control was ridiculous, she could cast the **Butterfly Wing Spell** she used on Rarity when they went to the Best Young Flyer competition in Cloudsdale on herself without the needed preparation or the immense original mana cost on herself. The cost was reduced to a speck in her mana pool that had reached what she could only assume was **Ichibi** (One tail) levels in mana.

She had found something interesting about her Magic though. Unlike when she was a unicorn, she could now infuse her body with magic, when she did this her strength reached Low-Jonin in power and her speed reached similar levels. Her Ninjutsu became at least three time stronger but their difficulty to control also increased by similar amounts. Her sensor abilities had also gone from their already impressive state to insane levels as she could feel the very emotions of people and creatures around, that had overloaded her and she had fallen unconscious after only a few minutes.

After regaining consciousness, she was very upset to find her entire body raked with pain and her muscles torn and her ligaments shattered in her arms and legs. It had taken three weeks of constantly channelling her version of the **In'yu Shōmetsu** to repair her body.

While that experience did hurt her tremendously, it had its advantages and opened a completely new series of questions. It had also led her muscles to become stronger when they were repaired, but she wanted to know exactly what it was she performed and why did it enhance her so much?

She giggled at remembering how her _father_ reacted to her condition. Looking into a window, she could not help but look at her own reflection. She stood at 4 foot 9 with her long platinum blond hair held in a ponytail that reached her waist with a long bang hiding the right side of her face; her light purple eyes glimmered in her reflection.

Her attire consisted of a purple high-collared blouse with a matching apron skirt; bandages covered her abdomen and legs. Her forehead protector was around her waist as a makeshift belt, her ears pierced with small hoop-earrings and her arms were covered in purple and white elbow warmers that hid mesh like armour beneath. She had black legwarmers that hid _very_ heavy training weights she had bought from Lee.

Still smirking, Twilight continued her way until she could hear some muffled noises and smiled at the door of her old class. Opening the door, the noise grew silent as the occupants of the room turned to the door.

"Hey guys." She called out as she walked in and almost fell in shock. There were only eight people, she had learnt to limit her natural Chakra sensing ability's to only a few feet around her body to avoid an information overload. "Where is everyone?" She asked in confusion with a frown on her face.

Shikamaru raised his head from the desk, showing disinterested eyes to the world. "They began quitting a couple of months after your great speech four years ago. That was the time when they began to see Shinobi for what they really were." He drawled out before his head hit the table again.

Twilight raised an amused brow, she had not thought of that day for a long time. "Right… Well, it's good to see everyone again and see you all passed the stupidly easy exam." She said as she joined Chōji and Shikamaru, already knowing whom she would be with team wise.

"So, Ino-Chan?" Chōji spoke up, getting her attention. "How has the Hospital been recently? The older medics still giving you hassle?" He asked as he munched on a bag of chips.

"The Hospitals been fine, no major emergencies have happened recently so it's been rather quiet." She said evenly before she sighed. "And yeah, they still think that I shouldn't be there despite the fact it's usually Sensei and I who do most of the work outside of the operation theatre."

She sighed again as she sunk into her seat. "I really wish Tsunade-Sama would come back to take over, the hospital has gone to hell since she left."

"From what my Kaa-San told me, Tsunade hasn't even set a foot in the village in the last sixteen years and refuses to even look at the Konoha leaf symbol." Kiba said turning around.

"The chance of her returning is as much as Kiba not lifting his leg to pee." Shikamaru joked without lifting his head, drawing a glare from the dog like boy.

"So… Fifty/Fifty?" Twilight joked with a straight face getting laughs from the others in the room.

"Hey Ino-Chan!" Naruto called from his position in his neon orange jumpsuit, getting her attention. "Is being a Ninja awesome? What kind of things do fresh Genin do?" He asked with undiluted energy.

"Well as I said four years ago: it isn't pretty; you will have a quota to meet every month in the number of missions which changes depending on the level of missions you take as a single D-Rank would be a single mission whilst a C-Rank could be equivalent to three D-Ranks." She explained before she looked around and noticed she had everyone's attention. "As for what fresh Genin do?" She asked Naruto who nodded enthusiastically.

"Well… We do D-Ranks that are basically glorified chores such as painting fences, walking dogs or getting someone's groceries for a few months." She explained to everyone's disappointment. "They are there for Genin teams to become used to each other, give the Jōnin Sensei time to organise the training for the students and encourage team exercises." She further explained to get them to understand how it worked, even if she too disagreed and didn't believe in it.

She refused to put her trust completely in others to help her, the other wielders of the Elements of Harmony had proven just how fickle such a relationship could be.

"Aww." Naruto moaned in complaint before grinning. "That's fine; I'll just do all the D-Ranks possible!" He proclaimed as he jumped on the desk, earning an amused look from Twilight as almost everyone else face palmed.

"Now, now everyone." A voice called out. "It's time for the team placements, and it's nice to see you again Ino-Kun." Turning to the door, they found the familiar site of Iruka walking through the doorway.

"It's been a long time Iruka-Sensei, where is Mizuki-Sensei?" She asked as she expanded her chakra sense to encompass the academy and several blocks of houses in their entirety, examining every chakra signature she could find to find Mizuki's signature.

Iruka had no outward reaction but his chakra did as it fluctuated at the question, and so did Naruto's strangely. "Mizuki is currently away due to personal matters, now I will read out the teams for this year." He answered simply and quickly changed the subject… something big happened.

"Teams 1 through 6 are still active."

"Team 7 is Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka ignored the two shouts of joy and the two heads hitting the desks and continued.

"Team 8 is Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka and Hinata Hyūga." The three looked at each other and nodded to one another.

"Team 9 is still in circulation from last year."

"And Team 10 is Shikamaru Nara, Chōji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka." Twilight smirked, the only two issues she had with this would be trying to get Chōji to fight and ignore his immeasurable kindness while on the battlefield and getting Shikamaru active.

"Your sensei's will be here soon; I know you will all become splendid Ninja." Iruka said with a smile before leaving.

Five minutes of random chatter followed while Twilight reigned in her sense to only the academy. Therefore, she alerted the rest when she felt two new chakra signatures enter the building. One with High-Jōnin capacity and one with Mid-Jōnin.

Everyone looked towards to door when it opened revealing two figures. The first was a tall man, with brown eyes, olive skin, short black spiky hair, and a beard. His clothing consisted of the standard Konoha ninja uniform with his sleeves rolled up half way, the flak jacket, the regular shinobi sandals and the forehead protector on his head. He also had a sash that had the kanji " **火** " (Fire) marked on it around his waist, a pair of black bangles, and bandages wrapped around the arms of his sleeves.

The second was a fair-skinned woman of slender build. She had long black untamed hair reaching her upper back, with unique red eyes. She had make-up consisting of red lipstick and purple eye shadow. Her outfit consisted of a red mesh armour blouse with only the right sleeve visible as the rest was covered in a broad material, which resembled bandages with a pattern on it like that of rose thorns. Her hands and upper thighs were wrapped in bandages, her forehead protector rested on her head, and regular shinobi sandals hid her feet.

"Ok." The man spoke up. "Team 10 is with me; Team 8 goes with the lovely lad – Oof!" He exclaimed as the woman jabbed the man's ribs with her elbow.

"I've said no once, NO twice and _NO_ three times… When will you learn that I am not interested in you Asuma-no-Baka." The woman said with a very annoyed sigh, her chakra was going erratic and slightly volatile at the mention of him, she did not like the man.

"My name is Kurenai Yūhi, Team 8 is with me." She said with a smile as her chakra calmed down to a smooth flow.

The members of said team nodded and followed her out. Leaving the remaining members of the room staring at a very embarrassed Jonin.

"Well," He spoke up. "I'm Asuma Sarutobi, and as I said before, I am the Sensei to Team 10 so follow me." He drawled out as he took out a cigarette and lit it before taking a long drag, drawing a frown from Twilight as she and her teammates followed the smoking man.

* * *

 **Yakiniku Q – Konoha – Twenty Minutes Later**

Twilight grinned as she watched her new Sensei cry at the sight of Chōji ordering almost everything from the menu. The man had doomed his wallet… and possibly bank account, when he said, 'My treat' when he led them here.

Shikamaru was lazily watching his Sensei with a slightly interested and amused gaze. Asuma brought an Akimichi to their home territory, willingly… very foolish.

A few minutes later their orders were taken and Asuma finished wiping away his tears.

"Ok, since you already know my name and we are waiting for our food, we can introduce ourselves to each other. Just say your likes, dislikes, hobbies, strengths and weaknesses and life goals." He said as he pulled out another cigarette, drawing a glare from Twilight in annoyance.

"I'll go first; my name is Asuma Sarutobi, my likes are my cigarettes, the village and Kurenai-Chan." He said with a smile that turned slightly dreamy with a glint of lust in his eye, making Twilight narrow her eyes.

She had learnt to recognise that look from patients that got a little too comfortable with their Nurses in the hospital. In addition, like any self-respecting woman she hated it, she might only be in the body of a twelve-year-old but mentally she was close too twenty-two.

Asuma continued, oblivious to Twilights glare as he continued. "I dislike arrogant people. My hobby is playing Shogi and my strengths would be Ninjutsu and Taijutsu while my weakness would be Genjutsu and my dream for the future is not appropriate for your ears." He finished as he took a long drag of his cigarette before he pointed to Shikamaru.

"Troublesome, my name is Shikamaru Nara, I like watching the clouds and napping. I dislike work… or moving in general. I enjoy playing Shogi and I specialize in my clan's Ninjutsu and my weakness is the plague that haunts all Nara men…" He trailed off as his eyes closed and he began to lightly snore, until Twilight kicked his shin, jolting him awake as his eyes lazily regarded her. "My point is proven. My dream would be to have an average wife, two average children, and retire at 40."

Asuma blinked owlishly before he looked to Chōji. "My name is Chōji Akimichi; I like eating and being with my friends. I dislike it when people call me fat, and those who misjudge my clan. I enjoy eating and spending time with Ino-Chan and Shikamaru-Kun, and I specialize in my clan's Ninjutsu and my weakness would probably be my speed and Genjutsu. My goal would be to make my clan proud and find someone who appreciates me for me." He said as his eyes locked to the food the waiter brought over and set in front of him.

Asuma nodded before he turned to Twilight. "My name is Ino Yamanaka." She said, inwardly curious at how she could easily answer to both 'Ino Yamanaka' and 'Twilight Sparke'. "I like working at the hospital, training and learning new Medical Ninjutsu. I dislike perverts, rapists, arrogant people, people who pretend to be someone they're not and those who abandon their friends in their time of need." She listed with a frown while Asuma stared at her with wide eyes.

'That is a long list of dislikes and they all revolve around people.' He thought with slight confusion.

"My hobbies include training, researching new medical techniques and gardening. My goal is to apprentice under Tsunade-Sama and find the answer to some questions that have plagued me for a long time." She finished as she began chewing on a slice of steak in front of her, no longer disturbed about not being an herbivore.

Asuma nodded at the first part of her goal, it was a very good goal but would be very hard to achieve, especially since Tsunade never wants to see the village again. However, the last part intrigued him, what were the questions that she had that earned the position as a life goal?

"Well, now we got the introductions out of the way, I need to tell you that you're not actually Genin yet." He said, dropping the proverbial bombshell on them. Shikamaru jumped from his leaning position with wide eyes, Chōji dropped his chopsticks in shock and Twilight straight glared at him with a small amount of anger.

"That is pure bullshit, sensei." Twilight growled out, having long gotten over her censored tongue, surprising the three males. "I have been classified as a Genin by Law for the past two years; I have been taking Ninja missions within the village for the same period and you tell me I'm not a Genin." She listed as she monitored his chakra flow.

Asuma coughed into his hand. "Well you do know that you were only acting as a provisional Genin, right? It was written in the contract you signed." He said with a stern look.

She refused to be fazed by the look she was getting from the Jōnin, she had long since stopped trusting anyone of a higher position to tell his or her subordinates everything after reviewing her memories of her interactions with Celestia.

What she focused on was his chakra flow, more specifically the way it fluctuated with his response.

He was lying – and she read that contract she signed cover to cover and it in no way said that… She had it changed to make sure there were loop holes that only she could exploit.

What was he trying to pull?

"Say I believe you." She began, drawing the attention back to her. "How would we become _actual_ Genin? I would imagine that you would be the one giving us some kind of test where you then decide if we are ready, if not you would probably drop us from the Ninja course." She theorised while watching Asuma's face and body language. She could see the small beads of sweat that was forming in-between his eyebrows.

"Which you can't do as you would be the one who drops three clan heirs, which wouldn't look good on the Ninja system or the Sarutobi clan. The worst you could do is threaten us with being sent back to the academy, which you can't do to me as I already completed the academy two years ago." She continued as Asuma's eyes widened a fraction.

Shikamaru's brows furrowed. That did sound suspicious; there must be a deeper meaning behind all this. He did not get the chance to continue his train of thought as Ino eyes widened as something akin to realization appeared on her face.

"There is one thing that is constantly preached about in Konoha: teamwork. Yet that is never touched upon in the academy." It made sense to her, the one thing she remembered lacking in the academy was any team training exercise… and then they are placed into a random team where they may or may not function properly. She held her chin in deep thought, all the while examining Asuma's chakra fluctuations.

"The Jōnin sensei would test the Genin and see if they could work together in a stressed environment… A fight against the Jōnin, I mean a single academy student would be decimated by an Elite-Jōnin. However, putting three Genin against a single Jōnin, they stand, if only a miniscule chance of beating him or her in combat. Your goal during said test would be to try and pit the Genin against one another, making the true purpose all the trickier to achieve or even see... possibly saying that one or two of us could stay on the team while the third is sent back to the academy, making us competitive of each other." She continued, while silently enjoying the way Asuma's expression became one of disbelief and shock.

Asuma groaned, why did she have to figure it out so easily? He had an entire test planned and she goes and demolishes all his hard work. "I am both incredibly impressed and annoyed now. You just broke down the purpose of this meeting in just a few moments… With you figuring out the test before I even mentioned one you all technically pass." He said with a sigh as he puffed on his stick-of-death more.

Twilight smirked, glad that she had saved herself from having to listen to Shikamaru complain about having to do another test. "Can you please tell us where you want us to meet up and when please? I have a few things I need to talk about with a few people." She asked slightly impatiently, annoyed at the meetings original purpose.

Asuma sighed. "Yeah, head to training ground 42 in two days at 8 AM for team training." He said as he finished his food with a disappointed look on his face.

Twilight just grinned as she finished her food and left after saying her goodbyes, leaving Asuma to wait for Chōji to finish his food before he could pay.

Twilight quickly navigated her way back to the academy, slightly surprised to sense Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were still there and a new High-Jōnin level Chakra signature was on the roof. Ignoring the new signature, she made her way back up to the classroom and opened the door to see a sulking Naruto, brooding Sasuke and fawning Sakura.

All three occupants of the room turned to the door in some form of desperate hope, only to have it washed away when they saw who it was. Sakura was the first to _greet_ Twilight.

"What are you doing here Ino-Baka? Your sensei already decided it would be a waste of time to try and train you because you're that much of a failure?" She asked as if she were better than she was. That was one of the things she hated about Sakura, she had somehow deluded herself that she was perfect in every way and that Twilight was somehow after her 'Sasuke-Kun'.

Honestly, Twilight found it sickening that the girl had become this shell in front of her. She remembered when Sakura had potential, but that was washed away the moment she became a fan-girl.

Twilight gasped in mock shock. "How did you know? It's not as if I spent the last two years as an actual ninja while you were still here, learning how to make a single **Bunshin**." Twilight mocked back, knowing what would follow from prior experiences.

Sakura huffed before turning back to Sasuke with stars in her eyes. "Well you'll never be as good as Sasuke-Kun!" She praised while easily forgetting the fact that Sasuke never even qualified a single time to perform the Escalation Exam, much to his ire.

Twilight just rolled her eyes before turning to the one she was originally here to speak too. "Hey Naruto, can I talk to for a moment?" She asked, shocking all three.

"Why?" He asked unsurely.

"I just need to talk to you for a moment, nothing bad will happen." She replied in her most comforting voice as she subtly cast a sound based Genjutsu with her voice as a medium, making him more receptive to the idea.

"Sure." He replied as Twilight walked out the room with Naruto in tow.

After walking down a few corridors, she turned back to the orange clad boy. "I wanted to ask what happened to Mizuki-Sensei." She said as she watched the boy flinch.

"I d-don't know what you're talking about." He stuttered out with slightly widened eyes.

Twilight sighed. "Ok, then can you tell me what the second chakra source in your stomach is please?" She asked already having a theory to what it was.

Naruto's eyes widened further as he leaned his back against a wall. "Why do you want to know?" he asked with a slight edge to his voice.

"I already have a theory as to what it is, I just need confirmation. As to the circumstances surrounding Mizuki-Sensei, both yours and Iruka-Sensei's chakra flows fluctuated when I asked this earlier, this means that he was lying and you hold a connection to his cause of absence." She explained as she pressed for more information.

"I-I…" Naruto stuttered out as he failed to find an appropriate response. He stopped stuttering when Twilight laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"If you are what I think you are, then I won't hate you. If anything, I think you are doing a great job that was forced upon you." She said in a soothing tone to the disbelief of the boy. While she didn't consider the boy a friend, she could understand that he had a tough life with what was forced upon him.

"I hold the **Kyūbi no Yōko**." He sighed out as he closed his eyes, expecting her to lash out at him as so many adults had done in the past. Instead, he was shocked to find that Twilight had engulfed him in a gentle hug.

"It's ok Naruto; I know you're not the fox you keep at bay." She said smoothly as she held him. Naruto stared at the wall behind her in shock and disbelief before he slowly raised her arms and embraced the hug with vigour as tears leaked from his eyes.

"Are you feeling better now?" she asked as she pulled away but held his shoulders.

Naruto smiled while rubbing the tears from his eyes. In just two days, he had found two people who accept him for him. "Yeah, thank you Ino-Chan. It is good to know that not everyone is close-minded." He said with a blinding smile.

Twilight smiled at him as she let go of him and lent against the wall. "Can you please tell me what happened to Mizuki now?" She asked again.

Naruto nervously shuffled back and forth. "I failed the Graduation exam again because I couldn't make a single **Bunshin** , and Mizuki told me about a secret test that would let me pass." He said before he hung his head in shame. "I stole the **Scroll of Seals** from the Hokage Mansion in belief that I would be able to pass and become a Genin. Iruka confronted me and we ended up fighting Mizuki." He said before a smirk broke out in his face. "I managed to beat him when I used my new Super-Awesome Clone Jutsu that I learnt from the scroll. After that, Iruka-Sensei passed me and Mizuki is in Jail." He continued with a positively giddy voice.

"What clone technique was it?" Twilight asked, not bothered about the fate of Mizuki, she never liked him. What she was interested in was the technique Naruto used. If Naruto could overpower a Chunin by himself with the use of a clone technique it had to be strong, along with the fact the Jutsu came from Scroll of Sealing which were all B-Rank techniques and higher. And then there was the fact someone who wasn't even a Genin had snuck in and stolen from the Hokage Mansion without being seen.

"The **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu** (Shadow Clone Technique)! I can make physical copies of myself now, no need for the stupid illusion ones." He said as he made a cross sign with his fingers and a cloud of smoke erupted to his left as a perfect replica of Naruto emerged from within.

Twilight's eyes were as wide as saucers as she felt the boy's chakra almost cut in two and one half move to the clone.

"How long did it take you to master this Jutsu?" She asked in slight shock, the boy did not even look winded.

A clueless look appeared on his face as his eyes closed and his nose scrunched together. "Hmm, I think it took me about an hour to get it working, I wasn't keeping track though." He said slightly sheepishly.

Twilight just stared at him in disbelief. She shook her head; she would have to think on this later when they both had time. "Naruto." She said, getting his attention. "I want you to come and find me at training ground 42 in two days. I want to see just how much you have been held back by; also, I wish to trade a technique for you to teach me that Jutsu. If things go well, we could help each other in the future." She said as she thought about what she missed in her original class over the years.

Naruto stared at her for a second before he smiled a thousand-mile grin. "Sure Ino-Chan, I'll be there and I'll master the technique you give me!" he shouted as he did a good-guy pose.

Twilight couldn't help but smile a little at the act; while she still harboured anger and a slight hatred for her friends in Equestria that had grown over the years, she was happy that she could still make someone happy, even if she didn't think of him as a friend.

She couldn't afford to make any permanent bonds anyway, her goal was to find a way out of her current dimension and return to Equestria, abandoning all those left behind.

"I'm sure you will." She said with little doubt.

"Well I better get back and wait for my Sensei." He said in a slightly annoyed voice, obviously not happy about having to wait.

Twilight blinked before she expanded her sixth sense again and found the Jōnin chakra signature still on the roof, focusing on the way the chakra flowed through the person's coils she found the subject to be male, and he seemed to be lying on the roof with something in his hand if the position of his arm meant anything.

"I think I know where your sensei is." She said, getting the blue-eyed boys attention. "Since I came back from my meeting, I intended to talk to you, so I sensed for your Chakra and found you, Sasuke and Sakura still here. But I found another signature on the roof of the school, its high Jōnin in capacity and upon farther examination I found it to be a man lying on the roof, probably reading a book." She said as she watched as a mix of anger and disbelief made its way onto his face before he took off running.

Quickly following the orange blur, she followed him up the various staircases and eventually out onto the top of the building where they found a man with gravity defying silver hair with the standard Konoha Nin flak jacket and blue pants. Standard shinobi sandals covered his feet and fingerless gloves covered his hands with a metal plate on the back of each. The most noticeable feature was the fact the man had more than three quarters of his face covered; the lower half of his face was covered in a facemask that went all the way down into his shirt while his left eye was covered by his headband. He was lying on the railing while holding an orange book close to his face.

"Well, I was wondering when someone would find me. Are you two part of my Genin team?" The man drawled out, not even looking from his book.

Twilight shook her head. "I'm not, but you are late in picking up your students Jōnin-san. Considering that I have already been and had my meeting with Asuma-Sensei, I would say you are doing this on purpose." Twilight said as she focused in on the chakra flow behind the man's headband, his chakra changed to someone else's the moment it entered for some strange reason.

The man closed his book and looked over at the two in slight intrigue. "Oh? And why would you think I am doing that on purpose?" He asked as he sat up and rested his head in the palm of his hand.

"I have been here, talking to Naruto for about ten to twenty minutes and you have been here the whole time. The simple fact you asked if we were a part of your team proves that you are here to lead one and considering the only other chakra signatures here are Sasuke Uchiha's, Naruto Uzumaki's and Sakura Haruno's. The three members for Team 7, and considering that your Flak Jacket means you are Chūnin or above means that you are their sensei." She replied as Naruto stared at her in something akin to awe and Kakashi looked at her with an impressed look.

"Very good, I'm impressed." The man praised as he stood and popped several bones while stretching. "I guess I better introduce myself. I am Kakashi Hatake, Jōnin to Team 7." He said lazily as he regarded the two.

Twilight nodded before she turned back to Naruto. "I will see you in a couple of days Naruto." She said before she glanced at the waiting Jōnin as she expanded her chakra sense once more to ensure there was not anyone else nearby.

"Remember that the Konoha Ninja's strength is found in more than themselves." She said - not believing the statement herself, before jumping off the opposite side of the building and quickly **Teleporting** away before Kakashi or Naruto could see the purplish-pink flash accompanying the spell after falling out of view. Leaving a confused Naruto and shocked, but impressed Kakashi.

* * *

 **Training Ground 42 – Konoha – Two days later: Evening**

Twilight hummed as she looked over her research notes while she waited for Naruto to arrive.

She had already finished her Team Training with Asuma, Chōji and Shikamaru. The meeting consisted of simply learning each other's strengths and weaknesses in detail, and then they participated in endurance training… that they found Twilight excelling in due to having an extra two years in active service while working at the hospital and the fact she hadn't removed her training weights since she put them, she didn't even know how fast or truly strong she was yet.

They finished at 4pm; the three male members went to partake in a few D-Rank missions. Luckily, she would not need to worry about D-Rank missions as she had received a week's break from them.

Currently, she was looking over her notes from her research of the Kaguya bone. She had discovered that she could completely remove the need to convert her chakra into the Kaguya's chakra; instead, she found that she could change her chakra in a similar way to elemental chakra. The main difference was that she used the **Yin** and **Yang** energies separately and then use them together after they have been moulded to create the **Yin-Yang Release** , then it would be ready for her to channel it to create new bones.

Slowly, she channelled a tiny amount **In'yōton** (Yin-Yang Release) chakra into the bones in her left hand, laced with her intent and watched in fascination, intrigue and joy as she felt her bones shift slowly before a pure white bone breached the palm of her hand and sharpened into a 20cm long spear head.

She was surprised to find that she felt no pain from the obvious damage dealt to her skin and muscles. Nevertheless, she was very happy that it worked; she had just proven that you did not need to have the specific DNA to use a Kekkei Genkai. Having the specific Genes just made it possible for the user to use the ability instinctively and with greater efficiency.

In her elation at the discovery, she lost her concentration and the bone dissolved into dust, and the wound slowly closed thanks to her passive and constantly improving **In'yu Shōmetsu** , leaving nothing behind. Twilight watched in fascination before she lunged at her research notes and began rapidly recording the results of her experiment in Equestrian with great vigour.

She was glad that she still practiced writing in her original language, as literally, no one in the Element Nations had the ability to understand the strange symbols and if they believed it to be a form of encryption then they were going to be severely disappointed.

She recorded all her research in Equestrian; it simply ensured that she would be the only one who would be able to read them.

Sensing a familiar presence, she quickly rolled up her scrolls and sealed them into a storage seal under her right arm warmer. Turning around, she waved to a familiar orange blur.

"Hello Naruto." She greeted as she walked up to him.

"Hey Ino-Chan!" He called back as he came to a stop in front of her.

"How did your test go with your team?" She asked.

Naruto made an annoyed face before he covered it with a grin. "It went great, we passed Kakashi-Sensei's test and I am now officially a Genin with Sasuke-Teme and Sakura-Chan." He bragged as he made several exaggerated poses as he then explained what happened during the test and how they passed after Sasuke and Sakura were forced, _FORCED,_ to share their food with him.

"Wait a minute." She said as she rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and for-finger. "They left you tied to the post and you only got out of it after you chewed, you _chewed_ … your way out several hours later, is that correct?" She asked as Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

Twilight shuck her head; she would not question it any further for the sake of her sanity.

"Ok, if you recall I asked you to come here so we could trade techniques." She said receiving a nod from the blond boy. "We will do that but I also want to see how much you have been neglected due to the people's dislike of your Tennent." She said making him nervously nod.

"First, I want to know what you currently know in terms of Chakra control and Taijutsu." She said as she moved over to one of the many trees surrounding them, the young Jinchuriki following her example.

"Well I know the **Leaf-Balancing** exercise for my chakra control and I know the basic academy Taijutsu." He said in a serious tone.

Twilight blinked, that was it? That was all he knew in those two categories.

"We have a lot of work to do." She mumbled as she began to inwardly curse at the academy. "Ok, Naruto I want you to try and perform a single **Bunshin**. Not a **Kage Bunshin** , I need to know how well your chakra flows through your coils when you are moulding it."

Naruto looked confused but nodded and tried the technique, only for a dead looking clone to appear on the ground. Naruto held his head in shame while Twilight just nodded her head as she analysed his chakra.

"Naruto, what did the tutors at the academy say when you tried this?" She asked, already having an idea.

Naruto looked at her in confusion. "They said I had too much Chakra Ino-Chan." He said but flinched back when Twilight launched a Kunai at his feet.

"You don't have too much Chakra; you have too little control." She said with a frown as the boy wearily looked from her to the Kunai multiple times. "What I am going to teach you is an advanced version of the **Leaf-Balancing** technique." She explained before she began to walk up the tree next to her, utterly amazing the boy.

" **Wall-Walking**." She said simply as she looked back to him when she hung upside-down from a branch, completely forgetting that she was only wearing a pair of purple panties that showed between her leg bandages.

Releasing the Chakra holding her in place, she fell and flipped mid-air and landed in front of the slack-jawed and brightly blushing boy.

"You start by channelling Chakra into the souls of your feet; this is the hardest place to channel Chakra and then to begin using it, you use it to stick to the wood. This will allow you to climb vertical surfaces with just your feet, take note that you will need to use your own body strength to stay standing vertically. This will also help you increase your body's natural strength." She explained to the excited boy before she pointed to the Kunai she launched at him. "Use the Kunai to mark the height you reach so you can track your progress."

Naruto wasted no time in picking up the blade and rushing straight at the tree, while only channelling a small amount of Chakra into his feet. He only got a couple of steps before he slipped and fell of the tree, crashing into the ground with a yell of pain.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that if you channel too little Chakra then you will slip off." She said lamely before he got up and tried again, this time channelling way more than needed, sending him flying in the other direction as the bark shattered.

"Too much and you will be sent flying with the bark breaking." She added, barely suppressing a smirk at the boy's misfortune.

"Tell me about these things before I begin!" He shouted as he ran back at the tree.

Twilight shrugged. "Well you were very eager and didn't give me time to finish explaining." She said as she watched him make it five steps before falling again. "Also, it might help if you lay on the ground and _slowly walk up_ the tree while adjusting your output." She said as she pulled a scroll from her weapons pouch and walked away from the boy cussing obscenities at her, easily ignoring it as she had heard worse from her patients.

She sat against a tree and unravelled the scroll. "Keep going for the next half hour, then you can have a break." She instructed to the falling orange figure in the corner of her vision.

While Naruto continued with his exercise, Twilight was reading about the different types of Chakra.

She had been wondering for years what happened when she infused her magic into her body, essentially mixing her Chakra and Magic together.

So far, she had learnt that the effects were like that of **Senjutsu** (Nature/ Sage) Chakra. Both energies seem to provide the same bonuses: strengthened body, stronger techniques and access to special benefits. However, both seemed to have similar cons as well: **Senjutsu** Chakra could turn a person to stone, and her magic tore her body apart.

After a bit of searching she found that her Magic acted as her own type of **Senjutsu** chakra, which was mutated and worked in a different way to the normal type.

Her theory as to why it did not turn her to stone was that it was natural for it to be stored in her body but not infused in her body; this would mean that her body would accept it naturally. The reason that it caused her so much harm though was because she had no prior training in controlling it in that state and that her body hadn't matured enough to support that type of power yet.

After thirty minutes, she rolled up the scroll and walked back to Naruto, finding him crouched while glaring at the tree. He was covered in dirt and bruises and was visibly exhausted. Looking towards the tree, she was impressed with the amount of progress he had made.

The tree was roughly 70-foot-tall, and Naruto had reached at least half way up.

"Impressive Naruto." She said, making him jump. "You are doing well for someone with your level of chakra capacity." She complimented as she ran a hand over the markings on the tree.

Naruto's brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"What I mean is that someone with a low Chakra capacity has an easier time controlling their Chakra as there is less there to mould." She explained as she turned to look at him. "While people with large supplies have a harder time as they need to wrestle with it to get it to do what they want."

"You are a different case though. You are a **Jinchūriki** , and **Jinchūriki** are well known for having very large Chakra pools due to them having a **Bijū's** chakra flowing through them. This could also influence the types of Chakra the **Jinchūriki** can utilize." She explained to the amazement of Naruto.

"Now, while you rest can you teach me the Kage Bunshin?" She asked as she sat against the tree.

Naruto nodded and explained how to perform the seal.

Twilight paid rapt attention as she memorised his instructions.

"Ok then, let's give it a shot." Twilight said as she stood up and locked her hands into the cross seal demonstrated by Naruto. " **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**." She whispered out as a noticeable drop in her reserves appeared. A perfect copy of Twilight appeared next to her, Twilight slowly walked around the clone inspecting every aspect she could find until she stepped away with a smile.

"Ok this is cool." Twilight said, happy to have a better clone technique then the standard illusion ones. "From my reserves, I could probably make ten to twelve clones at a time before feeling the main stress of fatigue." She analysed before having an idea.

"Clone." She said, getting the clone's attention. "Can you please heal Naruto?" She asked to the confusion of Naruto.

"Hai." The clone replied before moving over and crouching next to Naruto and began using the **Shōsen no Jutsu** on him. A few minutes later the clone finished, and moved back from a rejuvenated Naruto.

Twilight smirked as she examined the clone's Chakra levels, only an eighth of its reserves were gone from using the technique.

"Ok, you can dispel now." She said to the clone that bowed before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Twilight held her head in pain as sudden memories flashed through her mind of her healing Naruto, but she never did?

Her clone did though.

Naruto just looked on in confusion as Twilight held her head in pain before she began dancing as if she just won the lottery, won a mansion and gained eternal youth all at once.

Twilight's inner scientist was very happy now; this was huge, a way to learn multiple things at once! She had dreamt about having something like this for years when she was the student of Celestia, and now she finally had it!

Quicker than Naruto could track she launched at him and engulfed him in a hug and began spinning him around.

"Thank you, Naruto, you don't know how much I appreciate this." She said in gratitude as she placed the boy down.

"Thanks... I think?" he responded rather confused.

Twilight was not listening as she imagined all the possible uses the technique. She began quietly giggling with an evil grin as she thought of the possible looks her patients would make when they realize that their most serious, mini-medic could now multiply.

Clearing her mind free of such thoughts, she turned back to the slightly sweating Naruto.

"Ok Naruto, you have had your rest now get back to work!" She ordered, making the boy grumble complaints but ran to the task when Twilight glared at him while fingering the ring of another Kunai.

Half an hour later, the boy was done with the exercise, having reached the top of the tree.

"Ok Naruto." She said to the panting boy. "Now, I you to test yourself and make three **Bunshins**." She ordered and was pleased when five complete clones popped into existence.

He stared in shock at the five illusionary doppelgangers, while it was two more than he originally intended. It was a dramatic improvement upon what he could do before.

Ino was amazing; she saw his main problem and gave him a way to fix it in a single hour of training.

"Ok, this was good Naruto. Nevertheless, I want you to keep practicing this later as it will help your control if you reach the point where you can stay attached for more than five hours in a single sitting." She said making the boys eyes widen before he deflated slightly.

Twilight giggled at his look. "Don't complain. This is only the second level of chakra control exercises, the first was the leaf balancing and the next is… something you will wait for, you will not jump the gun and damage your coils." She said with her best 'Try me' look, one that had quelled the annoyances of rowdy patients with ease.

Naruto gulped as he nodded his head. Eager to be away for the medical demon before him.

"Now, I believe we are almost done." Twilight said as she packed her Kunai away before she turned back to the orange clad boy. "Actually, how well can you cast the **Henge** Technique?" The transformation Jutsu worked in a similar fashion to the clone technique in that they both create illusions; the main difference was that one created an illusion around the casters body while the other created them away from them.

Naruto smirked before he made the Ram sign and he was replaced with an exact copy of Twilight.

Twilight frowned at the transformation. While the transformation itself was perfect, the way he went about it was so strange. For one he did not do two of the three signs needed for the Jutsu, and the way his chakra moved throughout his body was different to normal.

Curious, Twilight approached and pinched Naruto's left cheek and was shocked as the boy turned girl yelped and held her cheek in pain, the illusion not wavering at all.

"What was that for Ino?" Naruto called out in Twilight's voice before he cancelled the Jutsu and rubbed his red cheek.

"Naruto… Do you realize what you've done?" Twilight asked in disbelief.

"Ughh… No." He replied with a clueless look on his face.

Twilight pinched the bridge of her nose. "Naruto, you actually changed into me." Seeing the still confused look on his face, she sighed. "Naruto, the **Henge no Jutsu** , creates an illusion on the caster. You created a technique that seems to allow you to change into what you create!" She almost yelled, annoyed by his uncomprehending look.

"Naruto." She said, her voice getting a sharp edge. "You have made a technique that uses the basic principles of **In'yōton** , you gave an idea form and then you breathed life into it. You yourself have rediscovered the same teachings that I have rediscovered and have been teaching myself." She almost franticly to the dumbfounded Naruto.

"Umm…" Was the boy's intelligent reply. "You lost me at principles Ino-Chan…" He said with a dazed look.

Twilight dropped her head in disbelief. At least she memorised the way he cast the Jutsu, she should be able to cast it, re-work it and then refine it later.

"Ugh, that's enough for now Naruto, keep practicing the Tree Walking and you will see a greater improvement on your control." She said as she began walking away. "I'll see you later Naruto, thank you for the Jutsu, they will be most helpful." She said before she began jumping through the trees back to the village.

Naruto blinked before something clicked in his mind. "I only taught her one Jutsu… what was the other one?" he asked himself in confusion

* * *

 **There! OMG This took too long to fix!**


	2. Chapter 2: War of Wave

**Well... Due to more life stuff, I haven't made much progress with the chapters, but here is chapter two. I hope that this helps people to be happy... for whatever reason.**

 **Don't expect the next chapter for a while, I have a bad habit of taking to much stuff on at once, including a YouTube Channel, Twitch Channel and job hunting... I really need to prioritize things better XD**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: War of Wave**

 **One month later**

Twilight sighed happily, as she felt her mastered and improved **In'yu Shōmetsu** sooth her body after an especially tough endurance lesson from Asuma. Her healing speed had recently surpassed Kabuto's and since she began training with her **Shikotsumyaku** a month ago, her healing had become even quicker and helped to naturally reinforce her bones to become stronger without the need to actively channel the **Shikotsumyaku**.

Her theory was that as both techniques utilize **In'yōton** at their base levels, they naturally complimented one another and would work in a sort of symbiotic relationship. Her bones would reinforce her and demand less nutrition as the bulk could be provided by her chakra while her healing would help the bones move and heal any damage done to them quicker and with a less demanding chakra drain.

She had also begun to develop some simple techniques for the **Shikotsumyaku**. She still didn't dare to try anything too large as she feared that she could still lose control of the artificial bloodline and end up killing herself.

She had also refined Naruto's Transformation technique, making the cost less intensive and remove the need to keep the Jutsu powered from her coils, instead making it a permanent transformation that she could cancel or change at will later.

Herself, Shikamaru, Chōji and their Sensei, Asuma, were returning from another D-Rank mission in the village. However, when they entered the mission room they found the Hokage cursing under his breath as he read a scroll provided by a small orange Nin-Dog.

The Hokage looked up and a small smile spread across his face as he saw his son. "Asuma, you are just in time, I need you and your team to provide Team 7 with back up on a C turned B/A-Rank mission in wave country. Team 7 has encountered the Missing-Nin, Zabuza Momochi; who's been hired by the shipping magnate Gatō to eliminate our client, Tazuna. You shall be the heavy hitter while you're Genin will be the support/ capture unit and Ino shall be your onsite medic." He ordered with a tone of finality, as everyone stood straighter and saluted to him. "You have two hours to prepare for a long-term mission, Ino you must be quicker as you will need to go to the hospital and pick up some extra supplies in case of injured." He added to which she nodded.

Seeing the Genin serious, including the ever-lazy Nara, the Hokage dismissed them.

Two hours later the team was departing from the village and Ninja hopping through the trees at high Genin speeds, Asuma and Ino having to slow down to ensure that Shikamaru and Chōji could keep up.

The trip took two days of non-stop tree-hopping to reach the ocean separating the Land of Fire from the Land of Wave. From there they hired a boat to take them across under the cover of night where Twilight handed out rations of Ninja pills to help them recover from the exhausting journey.

Once they reached the shore, they took to the trees once again to help speed up the journey while Asuma carried Twilight on his back so she could act as an early warning system by keeping her **Kagura Shingan** (Mind's Eye of the Divine Entertainment), as she had dubbed her sixth sense, at full blast to search for any threats.

A few hours later the Genin and Jōnin were knocking on the door to a small but quaint home on the edge of the island. The only reason they were at that specific house was thanks to Ino who lead them to Naruto's chakra signature.

SOS messages never contain exact details as to the sender's location in case the message were to be intercepted by the enemy, so it was down to them to find Kakashi and his team.

Slowly, the door opened and an elderly man peaked out through the crack, he audibly sighed in relief when he saw the village headbands and opened the door completely and motioned for them to enter.

"Come in quick." He said as they quickly made their way into the small house. Once everyone was in, they all turned back to the man. "My name is Tazuna; I take it that you're the backup for Kakashi-San and his brats?" He asked as Twilight almost gaged from the amount of alcohol she could smell on the man's breath.

"Sir, I must ask that you be more careful when you invite someone into your home." She commented, getting everyone's attention.

Shikamaru, seeing what she was doing, continued for her. "We could have been the enemy disguised as allies to infiltrate your home without drawing suspicion." He drawled out as he lent against the nearest wall.

"As rude as that was, they have a point Tazuna-San." Asuma said as he cast mild glares at both Twilight and Shikamaru, probably telling them to remember their place. Both Genin didn't react to it, as they both knew they were in the right but Shikamaru did mutter a small 'Troublesome'.

"Anyway, my name is Asuma Sarutobi; and these are my students: Shikamaru Nara, Chōji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka." He said as he gestured to each Genin.

The old man looked shocked and slightly guilty for his actions but quickly shook it off and introduced them to his friendly daughter, Tsunami and they caught a small glimpse of a brooding child who was introduced as Inari, before he ran into another room but not before telling them all they were going to die.

They were led to a room where they found Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke talking to a bed bound Kakashi.

Not even bothering to say anything, Twilight knelt by Kakashi and began to diagnose his injury's as he seemed to be the only truly injured person there. "How long ago was your encounter with Zabuza and how long did the battle last for roughly?" She asked in a serious tone as she began to heal the large cut along the back of his hand while simultaneously transferring a small portion of her chakra into his core.

Kakashi lazily blinked at the question for a moment before his posture stiffened at the annoyed look the blond medic was sending him, promising pain should he deny her an answer. And considering that she was currently using a medical technique on him, she could easy turn that around and use it to cause him pain.

"We encountered him two days ago at noon where we battled for close to an hour before he was removed from the battlefield by a fake Hunter-Nin after they shut him down using Senbon Needles to the neck." He reported as he watched her frown at him.

"How are you suffering from such an advanced stage of Chakra exhausted? You should have already recovered close to two thirds of your capacity yet you only have one third." She asked in confusion as she finished healing his hand before moving to his lungs, where she found some water damage.

"My Sharingan is a transplant, it costs me much more to use it than a natural Uchiha… That and I did throw out a B and A-Rank water style Jutsu." He said slightly sheepishly, but yelped in pain when Twilight's hand pinched his cheek and began pulling.

"If you have something that demands too much, then use it only when necessary." She said with an annoyed edge to it. She hated it when people pushed themselves too far, she hated it when her patients did and its worse when shinobi do it the field and turn themselves into easy targets.

Twilight sighed as she released his cheek and pulled out a small paper packet filled with pills. "Take one every four hours for the next day. These pills are a new combination created by the Yamanaka and Akimichi clans, they will increase your chakra's recharge rate as well as help any minor injury's I missed heal a little." She said before she pulled it away from his extending hand.

"Only one!" She growled at him. "Anymore and your coils will burn to a crisp and you will be bed ridden for months as it repairs itself." She warned before she shoved the container into his chest with a bit of force.

While she knew, it was immature to act in such a way, she honestly hated Kakashi a little after talking with Naruto and learning that he basically favoured Sasuke over him and Sakura while training.

Kakashi blinked as he rubbed his chest while examining the packet.

Twilight huffed before turning to the others, Asuma was shaking his head at her while her teammates seemed amused. The Genin on Team 7 were varied in their reactions; Naruto was grinning, Sakura looked at her in annoyance and Sasuke looked indifferent but still made an evil eye at her.

"So Kakashi." Asuma spoke up, getting the rooms attention. "What's the plan to do now?" He asked as he lit a cigarette.

"For today we all rest." He said before he turned his head to hide his face as he swallowed one of the pills. "Tomorrow we will train the Genin. Zabuza will be out of commission till the end of the week, we have five days to get you lot into shape." He said before laid back into the bed and fell asleep.

With nothing left to do, the rest of the Shinobi fell to sleep with them taking turns on watch every three hours.

* * *

 **The Next Day**

Twilight yawned quietly as she stared at the two Jōnin in front of them. One standing with a cigarette in his mouth while the other supported himself with a set of crutches. Her fellow Genin all looked tired having been up at five o'clock.

"Ok." Kakashi called out getting their attention. "We have just under five days to get you ready to fight with Zabuza and his Hunter friend. So, we will be starting today with climbing tree's." He said lamely, drawing a blank look from Twilight, an annoyed look from Naruto and inquisitive looks from Sakura, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Chōji.

Sakura decided to voice her confusion. "How will learning to climb trees help us fight Zabuza, Sensei?" She asked as everyone turned to Twilight after hearing her slap her face in exasperation.

"Well…" The white-haired scarecrow continued, not at all bothered by their female blonde student. "You're going to climb them without the help of your hands." He said, drawing shocked looks from them all except of Twilight and Naruto.

Twilight couldn't take it anymore; the annoying questions being shot out by Sakura were reminding her too much of her past self. Ignoring the stupid conversation on the basics of Chakra, she walked to one of the trees and began to walk up it vertically, aweing those who hadn't seen such a thing happen before.

Twilight turned back to her fellow Ninja. "Channel chakra into the souls of your feet and use it to stick to the bark. Naruto show them!" She instructed before Naruto followed her order and took off with shout of joy as he began to rapidly scale the tree next to her own.

She carefully observed the way Kakashi's single eyebrow twitched in obvious irritation. "This will increase your control, increase your overall chakra capacity and allow you to stick to almost any surface." Twilight explained before both she jumped down and landed in front of the amazed Genin, leaving behind very small cracks in the ground as Naruto followed her example and landed next to her with a slight thud.

Pointing an unamused look to Kakashi and Asuma, she turned and began to drag a surprised Naruto away. "I'm going to teach Naruto the next stage to this exercise. We will be just outside Tazuna-san's house by the water." She said with no room for complaint as she walked away, dragging a gormless Orange-Nin.

Five minutes later, the two Genin were standing in front of the constantly moving shore line.

"Today, you will be moving onto the next stage of chakra control, **Water-Walking**." Twilight said calmly before she began to walk out onto the water's surface.

"The basis is like that of Wall-Walking, the main difference is that the water beneath you, is in a state of constant shifting. Also, the surface isn't a solid, this means you can't stick to it, instead you use Chakra as a repellent force to stay surfaced." She explained as she turned back to awed boy.

"I recommend you strip down to your boxers, it will make getting dry later faster. You will need to constantly change your output of Charka to stay balanced." She said as she walked back to dry land.

"While you're doing that I'm going to test a few things out." She said as she walked away with a smirk as she heard the boy shout in surprise, followed by a loud splash.

Twilight walked for about thirty minutes till she came out into a clearing filled with flowers of ranging species, making her inner florist swoon. She expanded her **Kagura Shingan** to encompass almost a mile, easily sensing her fellow Genin and the two Jonin. At full blast, she would probably be able to sense close to a fifth of the island of wave and if she strained it a third.

Confident that she wouldn't be disturbed, she retracted her **Kagura Shingan** and removed the two leg warmers from her legs revealing the two weights around her lower legs. She carefully removed the two sets and sighed in relief as her legs groaned and ached in thanks from the reprieve of weight.

She slowly began walking around the clearing, testing her new perception of her weight against the compacted muscles in her legs. She felt a lot lighter than she remembered from before she first placed the two weights on. Slowly she began to speed up, reaching from her original low-Chunin speed to High-Chunin.

Smiling, she skidded to a stop in front of medium sized tree after a couple of minutes, entered a combat stance and struck the side of the tree with he left leg with all her strength. She was shocked as the tree shook and a large crack went halfway through the tree and the bark she struck shattering, creating a large indentation in the tree.

Her wonder quickly vanished as she hopped away from the tree and held her leg in pain that was shooting up and down her muscles and bones. Silently cursing herself she amplified her **In'yu Shōmetsu** through her muscles and her **Shikotsumyaku** into her bones to heal the fracture she could feel.

After five minutes, she pushed herself up but winced from the phantom pains. Sighing, she waked over to her weights and re-applied them to her legs before covering them with her leg warmers. She turned back to the poor tree she had wounded, with a small frown she walked over to it and applied a small spell from Equestria that would accelerate the rate it's bark would regrow.

She watched with a smile as the large crack began to rapidly fuse back together and the indentation rapidly filled back in. While the spell was good for something like this, it was useless in any other situation. She first learned it when she moved to the Library in Ponyvile to repair any damage to the wooden structure. But it couldn't be used for combat as it would only restore the wood to its original shape and could only be manipulated a small bit, not enough to create a new tree never mind a forest like the Shodai Hokage could do from nothing.

 _*Snap*_

Startled, she spun around and brandished a kunai, entering a combat stance. Across the clearing was a pretty girl with long black hair, dark brown eyes who and wore a pink, sleeveless kimono, with pale red edges and decorated with small plum-coloured swirls, that went to her ankles. Around her waist was a simple white obi tied in a bow, and she wore a pair of light brown sandals with dark straps. She also wore a dark-coloured choker around her neck.

In her arm was a basket filled with different kinds of flowers that Twilight herself recognised could be used for several different medicinal purposes.

The girl looked to be a few years older than Twilight and held a look of shock on her face as her eyes dated between her and the tree that was still mending itself.

Twilight cursed herself for not paying attention: when she used her magic, her **Kagura Shingan** would become blind until it adjusted to the new energy. She continued to silently curse herself as she waited for her sixth sense to adapt.

"Hello." She said simply as she slowly began to move around the edge of the clearing, keeping the girl in her sight as her Mind's Eye slowly began to gain range again.

"H-hello Shinobi-San." The girl replied with a stutter as she nervously glanced between her and the tree, no doubt thinking she had **Mokuton** or something along those lines. The last person to have it was Hashirama Senju, who was known to have the power to quell and control all the tailed beasts with the **Mokuton** 's power.

"What are you doing out here miss?" Twilight asked as she stopped moving, now closer to the girl, letting her limited sense finally encompass the unknown girl. The first thing she learnt was that she was not a civilian, no civilian had reserves of chakra that compressed in their coils, a clear sign she was suppressing her stores. The next thing was that her chakra was cold, _very_ cold, the sign of a chakra based bloodline, either snow or ice. The last thing she found was a cluster of chakra at the back of her neck, this typically meant a type of seal is drawing in chakra at an accelerated rate.

Twilight was nervous, this was the first time she had ever been out of the village and she might have just run into a possible enemy.

"I'm collecting herbs for my uncle, he has fallen ill recently." She said as she walked forward slowly, possibly to not startle Twilight and knelt to begin picking the flowers expertly.

Slowly, Twilight lowered the Kunai but kept it in hand and remained in a loose battle stance. "What illness?" Twilight asked as she studied the plants she was picking.

The girl smiled. "He has always had a weak constitution, this time it's a very bad case of the summer flu." She said as she went to pick another herb, but jumped back to avoid several shuriken thrown at her.

Twilight wordlessly charged with her Kunai and went to strike the girl, only to be countered by the girl using a Senbon needle, locking the two together. "You're lying, the herbs you have and the ones you're picking are used to create an ointment to accelerate healing and relax muscles from a stiffened state. This is used for patients who have suffered from electrical damage or rarely been forced into a state of false death… Hello Hunter-Nin." She deduced as she fought down her nerves and fears, this had become a life and death situation with no back-up, she would need to play this smart.

The girl's eyes widened before a look of pure focus appeared on her face. "Smart, not many Shinobi are knowledgeable on these types of flora. May I ask how you knew?" The Nin asked as the temperature around them began to drop. The disguised Ninja began running her free hand through one-handed seal, amazing Twilight who quickly snapped out of her amazement.

"I'm a Yamanaka, we are famous for our knowledge on plants, and I have one more advantage." She replied as her purple eyes began to glow and release a trail of energy. The Ninja didn't have time to ponder this new development as she was forced out of their dead-lock by a nova blast of purplish pink energy, which also destroyed the thousand needles of water that had formed around them.

Twilight panted as she quickly began running through Hand Seals. " **Doton: Doro Hōshi** (Earth Release: Mud Spore)!" She called out before slamming her hand onto the ground, quickly converting the surrounding earth into a river of mud that began rapidly flowing towards her enemy.

The girl in pink quickly corrected herself and vanished in a blur of speed away from incoming river of mud. Twilights eyes widened as she only just managed to dodge a barrage of needles heading for her neck, but a few still pierced her back. Grimacing in pain, she began running through more Hands Seals, this time for a Jutsu she had found deep in the Konoha's library.

" **Genjutsu: Kokuangyo no Jutsu** (Illusion Technique: Bringer-of-Darkness Technique)." She muttered as she sent it towards the fast-moving Chakra signature behind her, causing the signature to slow down considerable, allowing Twilight enough time to push her upper body out of the way and avoid a Kunai made of ice that cut along her cheek.

Twilight inwardly winced at the use of that technique, she was nowhere near mastering it, and it cost a lot of chakra to use.

But it gave her enough time to rip her leg warmers and weights off.

She threw the heavy weights at her opponent who quickly span and kicked them out of the air, using the clinking sound of the bars to find them in the darkness, probably thinking the sound to be poorly thrown shuriken, to locate them in the darkness of her vision.

This caused her to scream in pain as her brain registered what she did, that being kicking several sets of compacted metal bars in open foot sandals, no amount of physical training would allow someone to block out the pain without great amounts of pain threshold training. She fell to the ground in pain as she began blinking rapidly, the pain breaking the illusion.

Twilight wasted no time in sprinting at the prone girl, who had ice forming around her in the mud. Twilight flipped before delivered a drop kick into the girl's abdomen, using her strength and the momentum provided by the flip to shatter what looked to be a mirror of Ice that formed under her opponent and force her to spit up bile and blood.

Twilight reached into her pouch and pulled out a seal tag and slapped it on the girl's forehead. This tag was given to medic ninja so they can cope with rowdy ninja who think that they can still fight, sealing off their chakra and stopping any movement signals from the brain reaching the person's limbs.

Twilight panted as she fell onto her rear next to the girl. The adrenaline wearing off as the gravity of the situation she just went through landed on her. Several times in that fight she came close to death. She could have done better in some situations, such as teleporting away from the Ice Kunai instead of using a Genjutsu she hadn't mastered just to have time to dodge.

She raised a shaking hand and began pulling out the Senbon that struck her back, sighing as her **In'yōton** based healing slowly sealed the wounds and healed the cut along her cheek.

Twilight slowly moved over to the gasping girl and looked her in the eyes. "I win." She said with slightly shaking hands as she placed a Kunai against the girl's throat.

A look of defeat appeared over the girls face she suffered through her laboured breaths. "I'm going to ask you some questions and I want honest answers, I will know if you're lying to me." She told her as she gently applied more pressure to her neck.

"First question, who are you?" She asked, receiving a blank look in return she applied more pressure, drawing blood.

The girl gritted her teeth. "Yuki, Haku." She forced out.

"What is Zabuza Momochi's status, Haku-San?" She asked as she let up on the pressure of the Kunai.

Haku said nothing as she glared defiantly at her captive.

Twilight sighed. "You can either tell me, or I can go looking around that head of yours and see it in your memories for myself. I would rather not do that as it very uncomfortable for the recipient and I doubt you have any mental training to protect your mind." She explained with a pointed look.

Haku glared for a few more moments before sighing. "He is bedbound, if I were to treat him he would be operational in just under a weeks' time." She replied reluctantly.

"Thank you, now why are you working with Zabuza?" She asked as she moved Haku's head and subtly began looking at the now visible seal on the back of her neck.

"He saved me, I owe him everything so I am his tool." Haku replied with glazed eyes and a vacant smile.

"Okay…" Twilight replied unsure. "Next, what is the seal on the back of your neck?" she asked, drawing a confused look from the girl.

"What seal?" She asked looking greatly confused.

"The one on your neck, its passively drawing on your supplies in minuscule amounts." She explained as she reluctantly conjured a mirror of magic in front of Haku's eyes that she connected to her own vision.

Haku gasped at the sight of floating mirror in front of her, being held in the air by a thin pinkish-purple energy. Looking into the mirror she could see the back of her own head, her hair being held up by her captor's hand, revealing a small seal imprinted in her skin.

"I have no clue what that is." Haku said as she tried to make any sense of it, she couldn't remember a single moment or time when a seal master was anywhere near her or Zabuza.

"Haku-San, what is Zabuza too you?" She asked having a sickening feeling in her stomach.

The glazed eyed, vacant smile appeared on her face again. "He is my master and wielder for I am his tool." She replied.

"Haku… do you know what a memory seal is?" She asked causing Haku's eyes to widen. "I know you don't trust me Haku-San, but please let me remove it from you. Extended use of a memory seal on someone is very dangerous as it would eventually lead to fluctuations in the subject's memories, eventually leading to the subject gaining Dementia after several years depending on the seal's quality." Which was all true, as Yamanaka she was trained in anything related to the mind and that included rare seals that the Element Nations generally frowned on.

She gently removed the restraining seal from Haku, as her Chakra would probably be needed but still prepared a **Teleportation** spell with her magic in case she turned on her.

Haku slowly nodded, and shivered in worry and anticipation as Twilight's fingers moved tortuously slow across the black array on the back of her neck, she was happy that the floating mirror was still in front of her as it let her see everything the blonde-haired girl was doing.

After an hour of slowly analyzing the seal, Twilight was very happy to find that while seal had a complex function, its security wasn't even amateur. The hour she spent tracing the lines were mainly to ensure there wasn't any failsafe's in case someone attempted to remove it.

With a quick swipe along the seal with an application of Chakra, the lines began moving rapidly before dissolving into black dust.

Haku's face gained a look of horror as she released a low cry of misery before she spun and encompassed Twilight in a hug. Shocked, Twilights magic she had charged encompassed the two in a pinkish purple glow as memories flashed in her mind.

Memories that weren't hers.

 _Watching the murder of her mother and father from the man in the shadows, wielding a large clever… But her mother and father were alive back in Equestria?_

 _Living on the cold streets of a land filled with water and blanketed by snow… But she always slept in a warm bed surrounded by four wall and a solid roof in Canterlot and Konoha?_

 _The gruelling, torturous and inhuman training that Zabuza forced her through and the painful burning pain on the back of her neck as the memory seal was applied… but she never went through any of that?_

Haku was going through the same thing.

 _Feeling the panic as her magic went out of control… But magic isn't real?_

 _Feeling the pain and anguish as her friends abandoned her… But she doesn't have any friends?_

 _Feeling the indescribable pain of falling through the multiverse… What's a multiverse?_

Twilight returned the hug with vigor as tears began to trail down her face, a foreign sorrow and anger assaulted her. Haku too felt her own sorrow being reflected through Twilight as well as Twilight's own hollowness.

"He did it! It was Zabuza! He killed them when they refused to help him!" Haku cried as she buried her face into Twilight's shoulder.

Twilight cradled the girl as they both cried to each other. After a few minutes, they pulled away from each other but still had hold of each other's arms.

Twilight, feeling a little guilty, applied the **Shōsen no Jutsu** to heal the cut along Haku's neck, then the internal damage done to her stomach from Twilights kick and the damage done to her feet.

Haku sighed in relief as the pain began to fade away. "So…" She began. "… you're a magical pony?" She said as she wiped away her tears, burring her anger and sadness.

Twilight was shocked momentarily before she calmed herself, quickly deducing what happened with her uncontrolled magic. "I see, you got my memories while I got yours, and I no longer am one so no." She said, surprising Haku.

Haku lowered her head. "If that's true then you know what he did, don't you?" She asked, receiving a nod in return.

They sat in an unconfutable silence for a moment before Twilight broke it. "You're not a bad person for what you want to do." She said drawing Haku's attention, she continued as she reapplied her leg warmers and weights again. "I know from your memories that you are a kind person by nature. Wanting to hurt the one who took everything from you is normal, it's something I know all too well, I have been holding that desire for close to ten years now. And if you didn't then I would be worried." She said as she brought her magic mirror closer them, absently cutting her vision from it making the mirror's surface go completely black.

Haku released an annoyed sigh as a look of worry crossed her eyes. "I know that I can't take him out by myself, even in his weakened state he would be able to fend me off, the only saving grace I have is that he can't wield the **Kubikiribōchō** (Decapitating Carving Knife/ Executioner's Blade) and my **Kekkei Genkai**." She said as she began to fiddle with her Kimono, suddenly feeling rather nervous.

"That's fine, there is more than one way to remove a demon's claw." Twilight responded with a smirk as the mirror flew between the two. "Place your hand on the mirror and think about everything you know of Zabuza." Haku nervously followed the request and was pleasantly surprised with the cold temperature of the mirror.

Her eyes widened in shock as a profile on Zabuza appeared on the glass, lists and lists of information began to appear about him… everything she knew was on the mirror.

Twilight scanned the information, mentally sorting it all and picking out the flaws she could find. While the information was far from perfect it would need to do.

"I need you to return to Zabuza." She said, shocking Haku. "I know you don't want too and trust me I don't want you too, but we don't have too much of a choice. It would be foolish to challenge him at the moment, and I can't reveal you too the Leaf-Nin, as far as they know you are a threat and won't listen to me, they don't know what I do and wont trust you." She said as her mirror vanished into thin air.

"We need them to help us remove him." Twilight said as she stood up before offering her hand to Haku. Haku looked hesitant for a moment before she gently grasped Twilights hand, feeling a pleasant tingle, she smiled.

Twilight smiled, feeling the same tingle, as she pulled her up. "You already know about my true nature, and I know yours. How about we keep each other's secrets?" Twilight asked, feeling oddly comfortable and trusting with Haku after her magic connected the two of them.

Haku smiled, feeling the same way. "Yeah, I would like that Twilight-San." Haku replied with a gentle smile.

Twilight nodded. "You have seen my memories and know what I can do, but what I can't do is give you guaranteed safety or any at all. I might be one of the most respected Genin in Konoha, but I have no authority. I can't give you any safety there, but I can here." She said as she slowly began running through more hand signs.

After a minuet, she placed her left palm on the ground. " **Doton:** **Hi hyōji no sēfuhausu** (Earth Release: Hidden Safe House)." She mixed a few drops of her Mana into her Chakra, enhancing its effect as the ground opened, revealing a set of stairs going descending into darkness.

Walking down the stairs she flicked her right hand and purple flames sprung on small outcroppings on the walls, lighting the corridor. Turning back to the dark-haired girl she smiled. "This is a quick safe-house technique that I have modified with some magic. There are several rooms; a functional bathroom, living room, a bedroom, and a kitchen that needs to be stocked. There are only a few things I can't create from magic itself, but food is one of the hardest things to conjure as it's easy to make the food inedible and possibly toxic." She explained to the amazement of Haku who turned her attention to the gently flickering purple flames that emitted a pleasant heat.

Seeing the peaceful look on the girl's face she smirked. "The purple flames are a personal creation of mine that offer light and heat but lack the capability to actually burn." She said before she shoved her hand into the fire.

Haku screamed as she forcefully pulled her new friend's hand out the fire, only for her shock and horror turn to wonder as she examined the unscathed hand.

"Follow me." Twilight said as she moved through the furthest door with the amazed Haku behind her. Entering the room, Haku was greeted to a small room with a sofa and tea table. But her attention was drawn to a bowl that floating off the ground with a green flame burning within.

"This is messenger fire." Twilight began as she stood next to ethereal flame. "It was originally a by-product of my magic being infused into a dragon, after some time I was able to recreate it, allowing me to make a way to transfer small objects and messages to a specific location or person. The tricky part was making sure that I could make another flame without the need for said dragon to send the message himself." She explained before she sat on the sofa.

"With that we will be able to send messages between each other safely once I head back to Konoha. This safe house is for you to use if Zabuza discovers you are no longer loyal, the entrance will naturally hide itself when you are inside and will reveal itself to you and me. But there will be a congregation of chakra at the entrance so be careful." She explained with a serious voice and a minor glare, making Haku slowly nod in understanding.

Twilight smiled "Good, I will leave a **Kage Bunshin** here to stock the kitchen, remember that this place is here for you in case of emergencies." She said as she made the **Shadow Clone's** hand sign, summoning a perfect replica of herself who quickly left and went into the kitchen.

"Continue treating Zabuza for now, in a weeks' time he will probably make his presence known by assaulting the Bridge when Tazuna is working. I am part of the back-up sent to help so the Jonin should be able to counter him." She said she got up and pulled out a bottle of cream from a storage seal in her pouch before handing it to Haku.

"This works in the same way as the ointment you would have made with the flowers, medic ninja's always carry some in case of **Raiton** (Lightning Release) based injury's." She said before she suddenly hugged the girl. "Are you going to be alright?" She asked as she moved away, knowing this would be tricky to do.

Haku looked unsure for a moment. "What if this does work? What will happen to me?" She asked wondering if she could have a life in Konoha.

Twilight winced, that would be hard to explain. "That could be possible, but the problem is that the council would be more likely to turn you into a baby factory for your **Hyōton** (Ice Release) … or force you to marry the Uchiha to try and have **Hyōton** wielding **Sharingan** babies." She said blandly, Konoha might be classed as the _best_ hidden village but even they had done that before.

Haku hung her head, she knew that Kekkei Genkai were revered by most hidden villages due to the fact they were impossible by normal shinobi. While there were other hidden villages such as the Kirigakure no Sato (Village Hidden by Mist) who viewed them as nothing more than demons.

Twilight sighed, her staying within' the hidden village was dangerous enough, especial considering she was part of a mind reader's clan. She was in the same position as Haku concerning her magic, the Elders would jump at the chance to see if they could have a clan of magic users.

"I don't like it either. I don't plan to stay with Konoha forever, I will eventually leave when it's no longer useful to me, I just need to survive long enough so I can get home." She said as she moved over to the entrance.

She suddenly stopped a few steps from the door. "How would you like to join me?" She said, shocking the girl who looked at her in confusion. "I mean that I am not loyal to Konoha and will eventually leave. While I wish to return to my home and be away from here, I still wish to learn as much as I can from this world. But I do not endorse slavery in any way, I could give you a life away from this world… it would take a while but I should be able to get back there." She said as she turned back to shocked girl.

Haku was shocked, a way out? A way out of war, too good to be true… but from the fragmented memories she had from Twilight showed a colourful world that was free of war and had to deal with little things that don't mean much.

Haku could only say one thing. "I would be honoured." She said with wide eyes.

Twilight smirked. "I will try to come back in two days. The cream should last that long with the injury's I saw in the compiled data." She said as she conjured the mirror again with the profile of Zabuza. "With this information and the minimal knowledge, I have on your ability's, mixed with my own ability's we should be able to create a strategy against Zabuza. I am at Low Chunin overall, but I would put myself at high Genin as I lack any real combat experience." She said as she looked over the information.

Haku slowly nodded. "Ok, I will try and be back soon but I can't promise much." She said as she walked out of the hideout with Twilight following just behind.

Once the two were out of the hideout they watched as the ground closed behind them, not even leaving a single mark as the stairs of dirt raised and the lost grass and flowers rapidly grew back. No marks remained other than a small congregation of chakra at the surface she could sense.

Twilight turned back to the Ice Nin. "Be careful, if anything goes wrong, get here and hide. Write me a message and throw it into the fire and I will come as soon as possible." To which Haku nodded in response.

A mask of indifference covered Twilights face as she looked towards the approaching chakra signature of Asuma. "We have incoming; my Jonin-sensei is heading here. This is where we part ways for now." She said as she held her hand out to Haku. "I hope this goes well."

Haku gently grasped Twilights hand. "Me too, this needs to go well." She replied before jumping away and vanishing into the trees.

Seconds later a smoking Asuma fell into the clearing, thinking quickly Twilight began to leak out her chakra to mask Haku's lingering chakra. "Hey Ino, what happened here?" He asked looking at the obviously changed landscape, a sign of either water or earth based Jutsu being used, that and there appeared to be signs of a struggle judging from the uneven earth where something pushed it up.

Twilight regarded the Jonin equally, showing the smallest amounts of respect possible. "I was trying a new **Doton** technique, worked pretty well and then I started some speed training and forgot to take off my weights." She replied as she began to rub her legs from the actual stress they placed on her, making her act more believable.

While she did respect her Sensei, she only did in miniscule amounts. She respected his skill and prowess, a great Jonin. But she was highly disappointed with his way of teaching; she didn't agree with simply focusing on team based exercises. While she knew that the Konoha military wanted another Ino-Shika-Cho combo, which he seemed too much enthusiastic to encourage, cutting into their individual ability's and making them focus on skills that needed each other to work properly.

Then there were all the times they had seen Team 8 and he had dropped almost everything to try and hit on Kurenai, much to the amusement of all the boys present… to the girls however it was annoying and stupid, but to Twilight it was a sign that he was incompetent as a teacher because he would go at it for close to an hour. Taking time away from six Ninja-in-training and a Jonin who wanted to train her students.

Asuma sighed, while he could get Shikamaru and Chōji to at least respect him, it seemed he hadn't made a good impression on her with the Jonin-Genin test. Even Shikamaru had admitted that it was a good test to weed out the weak, but it seemed to annoy Ino. Especially when he tried to say she was in a Provisional Position at the hospital.

He had no idea that she had read everything on the contract and _had it changed_ to make sure there were no loopholes to be exploited against her.

She seemed to specifically hate the fact he tried to manipulate the conversion, and them into believing something she knew to be false. Since then she seemed to get the slightest kick by revealing anything, even the smallest of thing, he kept hidden from them that concerned them. Making it very hard to give his team any surprises as she would ask a few innocent questions while watching your every move, catching every motion and mistake with cold efficiency.

It was like working with a blonde, mini, female Ibiki…

Terrifying.

She could easily become the best in the T&I (Torture and Interrogation) department. Before he could continue pondering his blond student as she started to walk past him. "We should probably head back now; I need to see how Naruto is doing." She said with indifference as she left the clearing, leaving an annoyed Asuma.

* * *

 **Four Days Later**

Not much had occurred over the following four days, Twilight had mainly supervised Naruto with the water walking while she devised a new way to advance her chakra control.

She started by applying pebbles to as many of her **Tenketsu** points around her body while water walking in the rougher waters away from the shoreline, in doing this she had found her already good chakra control was becoming even more refined while also allowing her to learn where her Tenketsu points were.

She had been able to reach her hideout two days after her initial meeting with Haku and had unfortunately not seen her, but she had found the empty bottle of the formula with a note thanking her.

Since then she had to be a bit more careful as Asuma has noticed when she had vanished and was asking question after question as to where she was. She was lucky that she had could deflect most of the questions while she focused on healing the bruises and scrapes the other Genin had gotten due to the exercises.

One important thing she had accomplished was convincing Kakashi to teach her how to perform the **Shunshin no Jutsu** (Teleportation/ Body Flicker Technique). She already had a great deal of speed when her weights were removed but the idea of being able to move even quicker was too tempting, plus this way she wouldn't expend as much energy as she would by Teleporting short distances and it would be quieter and less noticeable. She didn't ask Asuma to teach her due to the current bad relationship they had to which Kakashi seemed to be oblivious to as he stared into that little orange book all time.

Since Kakashi had taught her how to perform it she had two clones practice it constantly, becoming more experienced with it and slowly reducing the chakra needed to perform it, she also sent one of her clones after it was done with training to the Hideout as a more reliable method of checking on Haku.

She had demonstrated her progress to Kakashi when asked and he had compared her to someone known as Shisui Uchiha, who was famous for the very technique she was practicing, being able to use it in combat to create speed clones that he could move between effortlessly and instantly to strike from multiple sides and let his afterimages take the hits meant for him.

Since then she had taken to employing the technique whenever she could, becoming something of speed demon, appearing and vanishing without a sound around her comrades to scare them and then be gone before they could react. To say the least, she had avoided a few Kunai swipes having her fun would be an understatement.

She was with her fellow Konoha Shinobi around Tazuna's dinner table when she suddenly stiffened, dropping the chopsticks and the food she held. Everyone turned to her with questioning looks as she calmly stood from the table.

"Sorry Tsunami-san, but I'm feeling tired so I will rest for a while, thank you for the food." She apologised with sincerity before making her way around the table and up the stairs, ignoring the inquisitive, suspicious and confused looks she was receiving from the rooms occupants.

Once she was safely in the room she shared with the other Genin she created a shadow clone that took her place in her sleeping bag before she disappeared in a flash of pinkish-purple light.

She reappeared in the same clearing from four days ago and quickly ran down the revealed stair case into the hideout. She bolted into the main sitting area where she found Haku on the sofa, curled up and crying.

Her outfit consisted of pinstriped outfit which stopped at his knees. Over that she wore a green haori with white trimmings, and around her waist was a brown sash with a fringed trail that wrapped around her waist twice. She also wore light-brown platoon sandals with straps in being the same colour as her kimono with nail polish on her fingernails and toenails in matching blue green colour.

Haku's long hair was gathered in a white bun holder, with two locks of her hair fell loose framing her face, bound with metal hair cuffs at the ends. On her head was a forehead protector with the Kirigakure's symbol carved upon it.

Large cuts and rips dotted her outfit with some blood stains covering her with a very large cut running along her back, as if a cleaver had been swiped along her back with some force.

Wasting no time, Twilight immediately began to heal Haku with an application of the **Shōsen no Jutsu**.

"What happened? I sensed your chakra in distress." She asked with worry as she monitored her patient's wound as it slowly began to close.

"I-I got cocky." She choked out as she continued to cry. "I was applying his medicine and I saw an opening. He had no weapon and was completely vulnerable… I tried to shut him down again with Senbon but he could dodge. He began ranting about his damaged and useless t-tool, before finding some Kunai and throwing them at me. I was about to escape through one of my mirrors but he was able to use his Zanbatō at the last second." She explained as she slowly began to calm down, finding comfort in her ally as she slowly felt the pain in her back fade away.

"You're an idiot, you could have been killed." She almost growled out as she focused on healing the damage around her spine, being careful around her spinal cord.

Haku whimpered at the words. Twilight, feeling bad, continued. "I'm just glad you're alive, don't make any foolish decisions again." She said, trying to comfort her as she fished out some bandages to cover the scared red skin, to help stop the new cells from tearing.

"So, we have a problem then?" She asked as she pulled Haku up and wiped her face with a spare piece of bandage.

Haku nodded with her head held in shame. "Zabuza might be a solo Nuke-Nin as he doesn't communicate with other ninja, but he still has some connections to another Nuke-Nin. They might not like each other but he and Raiga Kurosuki will work together so long as it will benefit them both." She said as she began to fidget with her hands, un-knowingly making the room to frost over due to her emotions.

Twilight grimaced, that would be an issue. Raiga Kurosuki, the **Kirigakure no Raijin** (Thunder of the Hidden Mist). An S-Rank Missing Nin that had found a love in performing burials… on living people. One of the few shinobi capable of manipulating Natural Lightning using his swords: The Kiba.

Not much was known about him after he defected, except that he began to wear a large sack on his back and suddenly became almost untouchable in battle, bumping him from his original A-Rank to S.

"That is going to cause some problems." Twilight muttered as she sat next to Haku, not bothered about the blood staining the seat.

While Twilight appeared to be calm on the outside, her mind was working at a mile-a-minute trying to reorganise and plan the strategy - another change brought by the damage to her soul, it had become very hard for her to panic like she did when she couldn't find something for her friendship report.

With the possible addition of Raiga their chances of winning would be greatly reduced, the greatest advantage against him would be Asuma's **Fūton** (Wind Nature) that would be able to counter Raiga's **Raiton** , though that might not work against Natural Lightning.

The only logical way to beat him would be to slow him down, and somehow remove the large sack from his back. She wasn't blind enough not to see that his apparent increase in reflexes corresponded to the sack he began to wear, removing that should cripple his apparent agility and possible cripple him further as there would be a very real chance he would be reliant on whatever the sack contained.

Slow him down, remove the sack and pray that Asuma would be able to counter Raiga's. A foolish and improbable plan, but not impossible.

Twilight silently signed in frustration, why did it have to become more complicated?

* * *

 **Two Days Later**

Not much had happened over the last two days due to Asuma keeping an even closer eye on her than before, a problem to her that occurred as he caught her sneaking back in during the dead of night. She could only just deflect his questions with half-truths and sweet words.

She had Haku stay in the hideout with medicine to help her recovery to accelerate. She had helped Naruto to achieve a semi-efficient form of water walking which she had dubbed **Water-Hopping** , where he would be constantly moving. Making use of his monster stamina and extreme chakra to move swiftly across the water's surface in unpredictable patterns.

The rest of the Genin had mastered the Tree-Walking but not without complaints from Sasuke and Sakura about how it was either to easy or that Naruto was somehow weak for not finishing the Water-Walking exercise yet… Beside the fact they had yet to even reach the same level yet.

She had spent her time trying to run as many simulations of the possible battle to come, but try as she might she was not as gifted as Shikamaru when it came to these things. Only a few simulations with her current information had ended in their favour.

While she had been performing these simulations, she had been practicing with enhancing her body with her magic. She focused on only letting a small amount of her magic enter her Chakra Network. Which was easy in application, but still ended with rather unpleasant after effects of her muscles tearing with the smallest application.

This lead her to believe that her magic was simply incompatible with this body, kind of like how earth-ponies use magic through their bodies rather than horns or wings. Meaning the she simply didn't have the body that would be able to utilize magic in such a way even if she now had the ability.

But today was the day, the expected time of Zabuza's attack was imminent, and Naruto was unconscious due to fatigue from the water-hopping. Both Kakashi and Asuma had decided that he should be left to rest further, being that he was the proverbial powerhouse in chakra and would join them once he had recharged.

Once they reached the bridge, she and her fellow Genin could barely contain their stomachs at the sight of Tazuna's co-worker dead bodies littering the bridge, thankfully their cause of death appeared to be from sword inflicted wounds and not mutilation. Twilight wasted no time in expanding her **Kagura Shingan** , searching for any survivors.

She couldn't hold back her gasp as she felt a few lingering, civilian level Chakra signatures within the very ground around the end of the bridge rapidly dissipating.

A thick fog enveloped the area as a crushing weight hit the Genin's shoulders, a primal instinct of fear coursed within them all, with several willing to commit suicide just to escape. The two leaf Jonin having already adjusted to the new pressure began to reassure her comrades and Tazuna of their safety as two figures walked towards them out of the mist.

The first was a tall and noticeably muscular man with pale skin, short spiky black hair, brown eyes, and small eyebrows. He had bandages wrapped around his neck and lover face, like a mask. His forehead protector rested sideways on his head. He wore a sleeveless black shirt and matching pants, complete with a waist-guard, and Kirigakure's striped wrist and leg-warmers. The most striking feature about him though was the massive broadsword shaped like a giant butcher's knife being casually held in his left hand.

The second had blue eyes with a darker ripple around the pupil, waist-length green hair with the top two bangs falling on his cheeks on each side, and having dark, full lips. He wore a dark-brown sleeveless vest falling to his knees with a purple inside, a light brown belt, light grey pants and like his companion he had bandages covering most of his body, his neck down to his chest, including his arms and his shinbones.

On his back was a nest like sack that seemed to hold a child if her **Kagura Shingan** was right. Though her attention was brought mainly to the twin swords in the man's hands, both blades having an upward-curved bladed prong near the tips with another being in the other side near the base.

Zabuza Momochi and Raiga Kurosuki, the wielders of the Kubikiribōchō and Kiba, the Demon and Thunder of the Hidden Mist.

Zabuza chuckled darkly as he regarded. "Well Kakashi, it appears that you got some back-up. More little children playing ninja." He taunted as he chuckled again.

"Zabuza, I don't see your partner anywhere, the one with the mask, though it seems you got more help anyway. Feeling a little nervous perhaps?" Kakashi retorted as he took out one of his Kunai and grasped the side of his Hitai-ate, preparing to use the Sharingan held beneath.

Zabuza bristled at the jab but he kept a cool head as he replied. "Hardly, my prior tool was defective, she's long dead with that wound I gave her." He said with a barely hidden smirk beneath his bandages.

"This one will do mu- hu!" He said before he had to dodge a bolt of lightning from his partner who didn't look pleased in the slightest as he held one of his blades at Zabuza.

"I am not your tool Zabuza! The only reason I am here is to show others the joy that is a funeral!" The man shouted with a demented grin before he turned his head slightly, as if he were listening to someone just over his shoulder. Before he rapidly began to take leaps to the side to avoid the Kunai being thrown by Asuma.

"You can show them that joy at your own funeral, Raiga Kurosuki!" Asuma shouted as he pulled out his Chakra Blades, coating them in a layer of Chakra for the upcoming fight.

Raiga's face contorted into a disturbing expression before he held his two swords together as a large concentration of lightning arced between them, forming a ball of electrical energy. " **Raikyū** (Ninja Art: Lightning Ball)!" He shouted as he launched the ball at them at high speeds.

Everyone quickly jumped out of the way of the ball with Chōji tackling Tazuna out of the way. Asuma and Kakashi recovered first and charged at the two Nuke-Nin as fog began to rapidly close in, obscuring the Genin's view as loud clashes of metal could be heard with the occasional flash of lightning.

Twilight twitched form her position protecting Tazuna as she sensed another five Chakra Signatures rapidly approach her and the other Genin.

"Incoming, five Chakra signatures, they have us surrounded." She whispered to her fellow Genin as she launched a shuriken into the fog, where she felt the Chakra Pathway disperse before reforming a few feet to the left.

Expanding her senses again she 'watched' as the pathways got closer, visible silhouettes being seen in the fog. Taking a risk, she threw another two Shuriken, one at the form facing her and another at the one coming at Sakura, she watched in satisfaction as the Chakra Pathways dispersed and reformed, using only a single type of Chakra: Yin.

"There illusions, this Jutsu manipulates a small amount of Chakra in the mist to replicate the **Keirakukei** (Chakra Network) to form 'Ghosts'." She recited to the Ninja.

"Ino, can you sense what's causing this?" Shikamaru asked as he swiped another 'Ghost' away from him, the silhouettes playing on the other Genin's nerves in the low-visibility. It didn't help they were still suffering from the after-effects of the Killing-Intent.

Forcing her sense further, struggling to peer through the shroud of dense Chakra in the mist she found the Asuma exchanging blows with Raiga, but every hit, thrust or slice appeared to be perfectly counted by the swordsman. But in return most of his Lightning based attacks were countered by Asuma's wind.

After a few moments, she noticed the Chakra signature on Raiga's back, it was flowing in a way the suggested a Jutsu.

"It's hard to tell with this Chakra infused mist. But I think its whoever is in Raiga's back-pack." She replied as another signature appeared on the bridge's rail post heading towards the four Jonin level signatures, one she recognised.

 _'Haku.'_ She thought with a smirk. _'Ok, if everything goes smoothly, then we will have the advantage.'_ She thought with a grin making its way onto her face, one that wasn't missed by Shikamaru.

She couldn't help but privately admit that this was exciting. She had to be feeling what the warriors in the books she used to read as young filly felt, the unspeakable rush that they described when in a life and death situation. Normally she would have hated the idea of fighting, but there wasn't any choice in this matter.

It was life or death. Success or failure, and if it was one thing that Twilight Sparkle prided herself on was the fact she wanted to succeed at everything… that and reading a good book.

Her smirk began to grow as mist began to thin. It dropped the moment after as she finally had a clear picture of what was happening.

"No…" She whispered, but it was drowned out by an anger filled scream.

"RANMARU!"

Wasting no time, she ran while shedding her weights, ignoring the calls from her team to get back as she ran into the mist towards the battle.

Today was the day that Twilight would learn that not every plan made would work. And that there can be dire and painful consequences.

Today's consequences:

The death of a Foal.

* * *

 **Haku: Five Minutes Ago**

 **"When one doesn't understand something, they will make a way for them to understand… Even if it's wrong."**

Haku was happy, excited and worried all at once as she jumped through the tree's, heading towards the bridge. This whole situation was straight up weird, she was finally free, and the one who freed her turned out be a magical horse… Just as insane as everything else in her life, at least this time it there was an upside for her.

She didn't know what to think of Twilight, on one hand she saved her and on another she was magical horse turned human. But she still felt that there was something wrong with her, as if not all of Twilight was there. She still didn't understand what Twilight's magic was, the only thing she had was that it could do impossible things and somehow transfer memories.

But then again, Twilight was a part of the Yamanaka clan, a clan that specializes in mind based techniques. And she could control Ice and fuse with it so she couldn't say anything about impossible things.

Maybe her magic is just some new bloodline that made her hallucinate or dream as a child when she couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and the memory transfer could be caused by the girl's chakra being aligned for such techniques and miss-fired when she hugged her in shock.

Yeah, that sounded much more reasonable and made sense. That had to be it, there was simply no such thing as magic, Ino must have taken her dreams as a child and her bloodline made her see it as reality. She spoke from experience as her own bloodline had a similar effect, at first, she believed that she was an ice fairy trapped in a human body, her mother set her straight and explained what happened.

But Ino chose to hide it, to avoid possible attention to save herself the risk of becoming a baby factory. But in turn never received help and continued to believe that her dreams were reality and her bloodline was proof of that matter.

Her thoughts were halted as she reached the bridge. _'Time to get to work.'_ She though as she entered the mist and ran along the bridge's railing, heading to the sounds of battle.

The plan was simple, during the Ninja's fights she would use her superior speed and stealth, combined with her experience in using the **Kirigakure no Jutsu** (Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Technique) to get behind Raiga and remove the sack from his back before using one of her ice mirrors to escape, leaving a weakened and possible reaction crippled Raiga to face down an enemy that can counter him.

Simple, clean and effective. And if Ino's strategy was correct then the two Jonin would easily be able to take Zabuza down together after, allowing her to get her revenge without having to get her hands dirty.

Now she just needed to pull it off.

The sounds of blades clashing and the crackles of lightning grew louder as Haku closed the distance. _'Moment of truth!'_ She though as she desperately prayed to whatever deity would listen.

The first thing she saw of the two was the Konoha Jonin holding Raiga in a blade lock, neither gaining ground as they stared off. The Kiba crackling with electrical energy while the Jonin's blades glowed a deep blue.

One thing she learnt from her time as Zabuza's forced apprentice was to wait for the opportune moment. So, that is what she would do.

That moment came sooner than expected as Raiga forced the Jonin back before hopping back several steps. The Jonin wasted no time in continuing his pursuit of the rouge ninja, switching his reverse hold on his trench knife in his right hand to right side up as he forced more chakra into it to increase the blades length before charging.

Haku leaped into action, vanishing from view and reappearing behind Raiga in a burst of speed with her hand stretched toward the bag.

"Behind you!" A voice called and Raiga spun in response, his Kiba cutting along Haku's arm, drawing a scream of pain from her. But he was too slow to react to what followed.

Asuma, continued his charge, his opponent distracted providing him with the perfect opportunity. The length of the Chakra blade easily going through the thick bag into Raiga's back with a horizontal slash. " **Chakura Tō: Maichimonji** (Chakra Blade: Straight Line)!" He called out in triumph.

But more blood than what was originally expected came out… A lot more. It poured like a fountain for a few moments in silence, until that oppressive silence was shattered by a rage filled scream.

"RANMARU!"

Raiga's lightning burst from the sky, knocking back Asuma as Raiga gently, but with haste, took the bag off his back and opened it up, revealing the pain filled visage of a young boy with purple hair and red eyes who coughed in pain, spitting up blood.

Haku's eyes were open in horror, a child? It was a child in the man's sack that let him become untouchable? And it was a child that was currently dying because of her interference. She could see Ino running through the fog to them, but why?

Would she attempt to save the boy? It was their fault he was in this condition, or did she know all along what was inside the bag? No, Ino might be slightly cold to people but she isn't a child murderer.

Asuma too stared in shock, he had killed a kid, a child that looked the same age as his nephew. He was going to be sick, what had he done?

"You bastards!" Raiga screamed as ran and kicked Asuma in the face, hard-enough to break his nose and knock him out. "You don't know how long it took to find my purpose, Ranmaru was the bridge for me to reach that purpose!" He raved with bloodshot, insane eyes. No longer bothered about the wellbeing of the dying boy.

His eyes trained to Haku's form who was moving towards Ranmaru. Moving to comfort the dying child "YOU!" But she was stopped when she was hoisted into the air by her throat. As she tried to form hand-seals her body suddenly went numb as lightning coursed through her body painfully, the electrical energy being transferred from Raiga's right arm, paralysing her.

Twilight was cursing everything; this was not how this was supposed to go. She certainly never wanted the child to die, and based on how his chakra had already dissipated from his core, had already happened.

She was pumping every ounce of chakra she could into her legs, moving faster than her body would tolerate as she tried to think of something, anything that she could use to stop this from going the absolute worst possible way.

The it happened, a sudden burst of movement that she herself wasn't even expecting.

Suddenly she found it very hard to breath as a crushing pain wrapped around her neck suddenly. Only when she forced her eyes open could she finally see what happened.

Twilight didn't know why, but she substituted herself with Haku. Her body and chakra acting on instinct, it acted against every one of her self-preservation instincts, but one instinct won-out and told her that she couldn't stand the idea of Haku getting hurt.

Raiga grinned insanely as he held Twilight by her throat, her legs uselessly kicking the air as she tried to get free. Raiga couldn't care less who it was, one way or another he would be performing a burial today.

Twilight kicked and wailed, unable to pull on her magic due to the pain and not being able to create hand-seals as she desperate tried to pull the mad mans had away from her throat as more precious air was denied access.

Raiga grinned as he dropped the other Kiba blade and thrust his left hand into Twilights stomach from the side of her waist.

He felt his hand go through the blonde Genin's abdomen and somehow go around her intestines until almost his entire forearm was inside her stomach, ignoring the angered and shocked look he got from Haku as he roughly grabbed onto a random organ and pulled with all his might.

Blood burst from the hole as a red lump was held in Raiga's left hand. He looked down at the fresh red organ. His grip suddenly tightened, sending blood flying from between his fingers as the organ was pulverized.

Twilight gasped as her mind registered the pain, her liver was gone.

Why was it gone?

She struggled to move her head as she watched the missing-nin crush the organ in a shower of red. Her mind went blank as her senses were overloaded with pain, her body going strangely numb.

Raiga flippantly threw the remains of the organ to over the side of the bridge. He watched with annoyance as the girl in his hand went limp, her body rapidly losing heat in the cold dense mist. He couldn't give her one of his burial unless she was alive.

"NO INO!" Haku screamed as she pushed herself off the ground and charged at him with hate radiating from her body, freezing the bridge with every step she took. "YOU BASTARD!"

Raiga turned his attention back to Haku and grinned, she was still alive, she could be buried!

He was about throw Twilight's body when to his shock and Haku's, Twilight's left arm shot up and locked around his wrist. Slowly her eyes opened, revealing her glare to the man as blood continued to pour from her stomach. She spat blood as her purple bloodshot eyes bore into his own, her right arm gripping her left shoulder hard enough to tear the skin and draw blood.

" **Hone no Ken** (Sword of Bone)!" Twilight growled as she ripped out a pure white Chokutō from her left shoulder's bone. Shocking him and Haku, her grip became stronger as she raised the blade of bone above her head…

…And brought it crashing down through the Insane man's right arm. Raiga screamed in pain as he clutched the newly made stump.

Twilight dropped to the ground next to one of the Kiba's as she ripped the bisected arm from her throat. A pool of blood quickly began to form under her as she gasped for air as she spat more blood. The sword vanishing into dust without her chakra to support it.

"You little bitch!" Raiga screamed as he made his back towards her, murder in his eyes. He angrily threw a Kunai into Haku's leg, stopping her charge, before using his left arm to punch the wound he previously made in Twilights stomach.

She let out a low whine of pain, too weak to say anything as her eyes slowly began glazing over. Raiga struck her twice more in anger before lifting her into the air by her throat again, staring into her half-lidded eyes.

"I was going to give you a nice burial!" A demented grin spread across his face as he began to cry. "It would have been beautiful, but I can't do it with a single arm!" He ranted hysterically. "Now I have to- "

"H… hey…" Twilight weakly murmured, interrupting him. "What has… green hair… is a swordsman… and is also… a stick of Dango?" She asked to the angered man's confusion. That was until he looked down to see the tip of a familiar blade pointing right at his neck.

He looked back to Twilight's face to see her weakly smirking. "I win." She muttered before thrusting the Kiba through the man's neck as her vision went black.

 **Three days later**

Twilight was acutely aware or the pain she felt as the swirling lights that blinded her slowly dimmed. Damn did it hurt, gently bringing her left hand to her abdomen, she could feel the slightly uneven stitches going across, sealing the wound closed.

Looking around, she found herself lying in a small carriage, probably in-route back to Konoha. The thing that confused her the most in her current situation was the fact she could feel chakra within her that wasn't hers, right where her liver used to be.

Oh, she remembered what happened perfectly. The problem with an eidetic memory, forgetting something like that was impossible.

She froze, she had done it, taken a life. She was going to be sick, reassuring herself that Raiga was a bad mad who probably deserved it helped none as she was responsible for the death of two, not one.

A child, a poor child had died due to her plans and interference. She couldn't stop the tears as flashes of the boy's pain filled face tore through her psyche, they flowed as she unintended began to picture the Cutie Mark Crusaders in his place. She was glad that her stomach was empty, otherwise she would have been throwing up everything otherwise.

Then she felt it, an unfamiliar weight in her right hand. It was heavy, heavy enough to make her struggle as she unsteadily brought the source of the weight to her sight. Her eyes widened at the sight of one half of the Kiba set locked in her grip with unnatural strength that she did not have, the blade sparking with pinkish-purple lightning.

She could feel her Chakra at an all-time low along with her magic, both energy's being filtered into the fanged blade. The legendary blades of the **Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū** (Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist) were notorious for the high level of skill and sometimes the high level of Chakra needed to wield one. The Kiba's need the wielder to have a high affinity towards Raiton to even wield, to which her magic was being used after the blade had drained her chakra to lethal levels to compensate due to its malleable nature and its desire to protect its host. Should someone run out of Chakra, essentially running out of the physical energy that supports their body and the spiritual energy that supports the soul, they die.

In response to the large drain on her Chakra coils and threat to her life, her magic took its place.

And as her magical talent is magic itself she could technically learn any magic possible. Thanks to this her body was instinctively shifting her magic to try to find a compatible form of magic to the seals embedded deep in the tempered metal.

Slowly dropping her arm, she slowly cut off her Chakra's connection to the blade and slowly began to retract her magic from the sword, the magical lightning slowly vanishing. Her tears had dried on her face as she violently suppressed her guilt and sadness down, those emotions would be nothing but a burden to her in her quest to return home. She could mourn and wallow in that emotion once she had the time.

Pushing herself up, she groaned as her spine and shoulders cracked from their misuse and lack of Chakra. Looking to her left she found the other half to her spoils of war, the second half of the Kiba.

Unsteadily rising to her feet in the rocking carriage, she stumbled over to the blade and grasped it with her left hand, remembering to ensure that none of her chakra leaked out into the blade before she moved to the steadily flapping curtains separating her from the outside world.

Her eyes adjusted to the intense light of the sun quickly, trees native to the Land of Fire greeted her along the edges of the dirt path she first took on her way to Wave.

 _'We are returning to the Village; things must have gotten better after I passed out. But this chakra, the organ is not mine, that's for certain.'_ She thought as she sealed the Kiba's into storage seals hidden beneath her elbow warmers, there would be no way she would let them go after the amount of pain that so many others had suffered at their edges. She would claim them as Spoils of Combat, that would stop Konoha from forcing her to give them up.

The "Spoils of Combat" act was put in place after the Second Great Shinobi War and before the Third, as a failed attempt to keep the peace should a Ninja take a noteworthy item from the corpse of another then by claiming it as a Spoil then that Ninja would be responsible for the item. Should this item be important to another village then they would not be allowed to actively attempt to retrieve it without officially approaching the village with an official request for the item.

The problem was that even though all the villages had agreed to this law, they still attempted to retrieve the items through underhand means, making the law basically useless with all the villages ignoring it to the point it was forgotten. This left it still active as a Law that she could exploit should someone ask for the weapons, if no one asked then all the better.

Placing her hand over her stiches, she scowled as she channelled her **In'yu Shōmetsu** into the wound, watching it steam as the new cells began to seal the wound closed, annoyingly leaving a prominent scar under the black stiches.

That was the annoying thing about her **In'yu Shōmetsu** ; if she had chakra running through her body, she would be in a constant state of healing. That is what allows her body to reduce the damage it receives pre-emptively if it is applied to the afflicted area before receiving the damage. This had the nice bonus of eliminating scar tissue from forming, though that wouldn't work on injury's she had received without the technique being active or her being out of chakra.

Thinking of her Chakra, she focused her senses to her new liver as she ran a basic diagnostic Jutsu. Only half of a liver, whose ever it was, sat inside her. A living donor transplant or a split donation then, the liver fragment she had would grow to a full-sized organ while whoever had the other half would also regrow to its full size.

Then came the question of who's organ it was, her own chakra had already filtered itself through it, being converted into the original owners before being re-introduced into her own system, dramatically increasing its potency, making it hard to determine whose organ it was. But one thing she could feel from it was the fact that it was hot, not hot as in fire-hot, but hot as in acidic like the chemicals she used to handle at her kit lab in her library.

Shaking her head, she hopped down from the back of the carriage and made her way around the side, finding her fellow Genin all walking next to the horses while Kakashi and Asuma sat behind the reigns of the carriage.

"Morning." She called out as she made her way to the Genin, drawing all their eyes. "What did I miss?" She asked lamely as she fished out some bandages to begin wrapping her waist back up, hiding the already sealed wound.

The Genin all looked between one another awkwardly, nervous for some reason or other. Getting slightly annoyed at the lack of response, she turned her head back to Kakashi as she unravelled more of the bandage. "What did I miss Kakashi-Sensei?" she asked before she turned her eyes back to her wrappings.

The silver haired man awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "Well, after your little stunt I was able to finish off Zabuza with the help of the fake Hunter-Nin. You were the priority at the time so we let him go after he pointed out your injury's." He replied as he watched her wrap her waist up.

Twilight pulled the bandages tight, gasping in pain as the bandages rubbed against her stitches. "What about the child?" She asked as she adjusted herself.

Kakashi's head dropped a little as all the Genin became down cast. "Dead, the strike he received was fatal." He said as Asuma's hands tightened around the horse's reigns, the bags under his eyes being heavy. Guilt heavily set into his features.

Twilight was silent as she crushed her own guilt. "What about his body? Was he buried?" Respecting the dead was truly an important thing for Twilight, working in a Hospital leads to someone gaining a respect for both Life and Death.

"Buried." Naruto answered, a haunted look in his eyes. "We buried him with a view of the ocean, hopefully he would like it." He continued before he glanced back at her. "I finally understand what you meant, all those years ago, during the academy. Shinobi are cruel, we do the dirty work, we fight… and die in the darkness. Nothing more than weapons to be discarded once our edges have dulled, or be destroyed should we turn on our wielders." He calmly ranted as everyone stared at him shock and disbelief.

"How long have I been asleep?" Twilight whispered to Shikamaru.

"Four days… how the hell are you moving with those injury's?" He asked suspiciously as he recovered from Naruto's dark speech.

 _'Then he's been stewing on this for a while.'_ She though ignoring Shikamaru's suspicious gaze.

"That's true Naruto." Kakashi said, halting her before she could speak. Drawing shocked looks from everyone.

"However, we are weapons that are used to defend our homes, to protect those we deem precious. Zabuza believed in nothing but strength, which lead to him becoming a missing-nin, ultimately dying as a criminal. Remember what I said when I first began to teach you: 'Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash.' Zabuza did this and it lead to him dying alone. We may be weapons, but we are weapons with emotions and relationships. If you have these bonds, you won't become a monster as we share our pain with each other. Finding comfort in each other." He finished with an eye smile as the Genin all looked a little better, with Naruto looking as if it was an answer that solved everything. Even Sasuke and Sakura looked intrigued and amazed with the answer.

Twilight however, internally frowned at the speech. It struck very close to home with the idea of her, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy being nothing more than weapons of the Elements of Harmony. To be directed at threats to Equestria. By Kakashi's logic, she wouldn't have been abandoned by her friends and family yet here she was, in a different world that is centred around war and killing.

No, she couldn't believe in such words, such beliefs had already hurt her greatly and led her to her current situation. She would need to harden her resolve further, before her emotions cause her to make a mistake. She couldn't afford to get attached to anyone here, the first chance she gets she would be leaving without looking back. She couldn't- she refused to let them be hurt because of her future actions.

"Hey Ino." Sasuke called out with slightly narrowed eyes, drawing her attention away from the prior conversation. "What happened to those swor-"

"There mine." She interrupted with no hesitation or emotion as she turned her attention back to the road, not bothered by the slightly suspicious or worried looks she was getting. Her stomach began to burn, reminding her of her current predicament. "I have a question." She said, turning the conversation away from the topic Sasuke was trying to start, probably wanting the swords for himself. "Whose liver do I have now?" She asked, making Kakashi chuckle.

"You can thank our Number One Hyperactive, Knucklehead Ninja over here." He said as he pointed at Naruto, who looked away with a blush.

Instantly Twilight's eyes widened, she had Naruto's organ inside of her, an organ that contained the chakra of a Tarturus-damn Bijū. No wonder her body was burning from her own chakra, the corrosive nature of the energy was slowly burning her network, even if diluted from her own energy's.

"Ok, thank you Naruto." She said with a smile, her eyes closed, looking the picture-perfect image of innocent, making Naruto blush at the praise. Then it vanished, her eyes opened into a glare as turned back to Kakashi with her mouth in a viscous scowl. "Who performed the surgery?" She growled out.

Kakashi blinked in mild shock at the sudden change in expression. "A doctor back in Wave along with myself to help connect the chakra network." He said as he watched her expression get worse before she sighed in resignation. Her eyes hardened into a glare before she twitched her head in Naruto's direction before mouthing a word that made Kakashi go cold, she mouthed **Kyūbi**.

He didn't do anything as she turned back to the road, silently fuming at the silver haired fool's decision. It would take a while, but she would eventually become accustomed to the presence of a Bijū's chakra in her system. She might even be able to get some benefits out of it, with the chakra being so deeply infused into the organ, it would continue to create the demon's chakra, slowly boosting her Chakra reserves and possibly boosting her Jutsu power. The main downside to this would be the fact she would need to train her chakra control again. Then there was the fact she had no idea how the Bijū chakra would react to her magic or her **In'yōton**.

"How long until we reach Konoha?" She asked as she tried to sooth the burning in her stomach.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at her, how in Kami's name did she know an S-Class secret? But he did understand her apparent anger, he had failed to consider the possibility of the Tailed Beast energy in the organ or how her own body would react to its presence. And by the way she was wincing and holding herself suggested discomfort, be it from the chakra or the stitching he had helped do, he didn't know.

"How long until we are back?" She asked again as she stored the last of her bandages.

"About a day, we have been moving at a solid pace for a while. Not exactly what you all expected on your first C-rank was it?" Kakashi replied in an upbeat tone, somehow trying to make light of the situation. He only received groans and complaints from the children, his team glared at him for his joke.

* * *

 **Hokage Office – Konoha – 1 Day Later**

Twilights face remained impassive as she was forced to stand and wait for Asuma and Kakashi to finish their reports about the mission, the rest of the Genin had already been dismissed while she had been told to stay by Kakashi. She knew perfectly well why, she was responsible for several factors of the mission that the two Jonin commanders had not authorised. Plus, there was also the fact that she had let spill that she knew what Naruto contained, an S-Rank secret of the village.

Should she not choose her words wisely, this could very well be her last few breaths of free air.

"Ino-San." The Hokage called, breaking her of her thoughts. She silently made her way to the front of his desk, bowing before standing to attention next to Kakashi and Asuma.

"Hokage-Sama." She greeted, awaiting the confrontation.

His brown eyes were steel as they cut into her own purple. "Please debrief me on why you know of one of Naruto's secrets?" He asked without his gaze leaving her own. Twilight's left eyebrow raised in slight confusion and intrigue, before it vanished back into her apathetical mask.

 _'Secrets… Plural…'_ She thought as she stared back at the Hokage.

"I first noticed an anomaly with Naruto when we were first in the academy together, a person is only ever supposed to have a single Chakra source, yet he has two. At the time, I didn't think much of it but a couple of months after I grew curious and did some digging in the Library and Archives and found the term **Jinchūriki** connected to people with two chakra sources. 'Power of Human Sacrifice' is such a disgusting term, but I can understand it, especially after I back traced Naruto's birth to the night of the Kyūbi attack. It was at this point that my theory began to take form." She answered without pausing. The Hokage's face didn't change as she explained how she came across this secret, content on just watching and listening.

"For the next few years I delved deeper into this." She continued. "However, the evidence and clues rapidly became thinner and thinner, but I did get enough to test my theory after I had the introductory meeting with Asuma-Sensei. I asked Naruto personally and he confirmed my theory." She finished. She stared into the Hokage's eyes, searching for any indication of his internal thoughts.

The elderly man kept his gaze for a few moments begore sighing and rubbing his eyes. "You are not supposed to know about that, but due to you finding out how you did and had it confirmed by Naruto then I can't punish you as you haven't broken the Law." He explained with a smile, happy that he wouldn't need to punish her, but it quickly turned into a frown as he looked back to her. "I will need to confirm it with Naruto, and should he confirm your claim then I can guarantee no punishment will befall you. For now, I recommend that you go to the hospital and have that transplant checked. You have a week off to rest up and for the following week after you will be limited to D-Rank missions and light work at the hospital." He said as his left hand twitched, instantly she felt a chakra source vanish in a burst.

' _Probably gone to retrieve Naruto._ ' She analysed as she spread her **Kagura Shingan** out. "If I may Hokage-Sama, I shall head to the Hospital." She said as she bowed and made her exit, heavily aware of the chakra signature following her.

' _That was a lot smoother than I imagined, he didn't question me on the topic of Haku and the discrepancy's in the mission so he possibly doesn't realise that it relates back to me._ ' She thought as she made her way through the bustling streets. Ignorant to the looks she was receiving from a certain Uchiha and Nara.

' _This is good, I may be able to float just under the radar for a little while longer._ ' She continued as she made her way into the hospital, once again ignoring the looks she was receiving from the other medical staff. She had no time for them now, she needed to get the transplant analysed by a second doctor and there was only one she even remotely trusted.

After walking for another five minutes she finally came to her office that she shared with Kabuto. Technically her apprenticeship was over after two years but the medical staff still treated her as a child and simply tried to find ways to get away from her or have her moved away. For this purpose, the current head of the hospital had moved both her and Kabuto to a smaller office that was on one of the less used floors of the Hospital, hoping to have the two of them out of the way and forgotten.

Opening the door, she greeted her two-year sensei and college, Kabuto. "Greetings Kabuto-Sensei." She said formally with a slight bow, making her twitch at the feeling of the stiches beneath the bandages.

"Ah, Ino-Chan, you know you don't have to call me that anymore, we both hold the same position now, no need for formality's when it's just the two of us." He replied as he looked up form some documents. "How was your first mission outside the village?" He asked as he looked at the extra bandages around her waist and stomach, concern layered into his tone.

Twilight sighed. "I need you to have look at something for me, while on the mission I was injured and Kakashi along with a doctor had to perform emergency surgery on me." She explained as she unwrapped the bandages and revealed the pink scar along with the stiches. "I need you to ensure that the Liver that is inside me isn't going to be rejected and the chakra it has isn't going to have any adverse effects on me." She couldn't say whose liver it was otherwise the ANBU watching them would most likely strike, and she was not going take that chance.

She made her way over to one of the two examination tables in the office and laid down on the sterile sheets. Kabuto nodded and made his way over and began to analyse the organ with the **Shōsen Jutsu**. Twilight's eyes twitched when the chakra signature from the ANBU vanished, probably having received confirmation on her story.

"I see that you're **In'yu Shōmetsu** is working fine, the organ is working fine and your body actually seems to be integrating it rather well… Hmm… I would need to do some tests but you should be fine. The chakra is… volatile to say the least… but you should be fine with how diluted it is." He said as he helped to re-apply the bandages around her waist and stomach. "Do you not want the stiches removed? We both know that you don't need them." He said as he adjusted his glasses.

Twilight held her emotionless look as she tightened the bandages up. "We both know that we don't want the secret to the **In'yu Shōmetsu** getting out. Besides I didn't want to explain why I was suddenly injured to well in a matter of a day or two." She said as she finished tying the bandages. "And I better keep the stiches in, it should hopefully stop some questions from being asked, I know that you want this ability to be kept private. Besides, it will look intimidating." She explained with a shrug.

Kabuto blinked widely at that, that was not the answer he was expecting from her at all.

"Kabuto, do you know the passcode to the Konoha Citizen Archives?" Twilight asked as she hopped off the table. Kabuto looked at her in confusion, why would she want to know that?

"Yeah, but why?" He asked as he took out a piece of paper and a pen.

"I just wanted to trace back my family lineage some, I don't know where my purple eyes come from and I am a little curious about it. The Yamanaka libraries don't document eye colour and other details like that." She said as she watched him write the code.

"Well, here you go." He said as he handed her the paper. "Get some rest, you look like you need it." He advised before he turned back to his paper work with a sigh.

Twilight smiled as she walked out the office, a quick glance at the piece of paper was all she needed before she scrunched up the paper and then tore it up.

She made her way down to the basement level of the hospital and inputted the code into the door panel. Her eyes drifted across the few dozens of filing cabinets, lining each wall and spanning all the way to the celling.

Deciding not to waste any time she broke out into a sprint, racing as quickly as she could down the dark corridors. Her eyes rapidly cataloguing and sorting through the labels of each cabinmate she passed, searching for a specific letter.

She skidded to a stop, finally finding the start of the cabinets she needed. Slowly walking by the cabinets, searching for one file, one specific file.

Her eyes and body froze, a single draw bearing the name she was looking for.

"Uzumaki…" She gently whispered as she slowly pulled the container open. She frowned at the heavy lack of documents within. Only three brown folders rested inside. Grunting in annoyance, she pulled all three out and laid them down on a table just a few steps away.

Three names across three documents. Two folders bearing large printed 'C's across the covers, signifying them as copies of the originals while all three held the spiral pattern that was sewn into the Konoha shinobi uniform. Now that was interesting, none of the other files she had ever handled had that symbol. In-fact, the only time she had ever seen this was when she handled clan related documents.

Her curiosity growing, she opened the oldest dated document and found the image of a beautiful woman who had bright red hair and large, pupiless black eyes. A black rhombus imprinted into her forehead.

"Uzumaki Mito." Twilight muttered as she began reading the information found in the documents.

 _Clan Status: Uzumaki, Senju_

 _D.O.B: May 3_

 _Relationships: Senju Hashirama - Husband_

 _Village Standing: Civilian -_ _ **Jinchūriki-Nine Tails**_

 _Status: Deceased_

 _'Interesting… An actual clan of Uzumaki?'_ Twilight thought as realised that Naruto might not be such a standard, every day, random orphan selected to be the great demon's host.

Closing the file, she moved to the next. This file was too a copy, but the date was much newer, only being close to 20 years old.

Opening the document greeted her to an image of a child that looked to be of a similar age to herself. The child had a rounded face that when paired with her long red hair gave her a somewhat resemblance to a tomato. Other than that, she had bluish purple eyes and a blue hair clip keeping her hair out of her face.

"Kushina?" Twilight muttered as she scanned the information in the document.

 _Clan Status: Uzumaki_

 _D.O.B: July 10_

 _Relationships: [_ _ **Redacted**_ _]_

 _Next of Kin: [_ _ **Redacted**_ _]_

 _Village Standing: Kunoichi – Jōnin (10 years active service) - [_ _ **Redacted**_ _]_

 _Status: Deceased (October 10)_

 _Additional Information: Migrated from Uzushiogakure to become the host of the [_ _ **Redacted**_ _] due to Lady Mito's health declining in her age._

Who ever tried to bury this information left way too much available. They only removed the vital information, not the information that relates to it. The simple fact the document states that this girl was brought to become a host along with Mito no longer being able to host whatever it was meant that this girl became a sacrifice, a **Jinchūriki**. And the only demon in Konoha was the Kyūbi.

While miniscule, this little piece of information was enough for her to begin drawing a conclusion.

Closing the folder, her eyes landed on the last one. The only one that was an original document out of them all.

Opening the file revealed all she needed.

 _Name: Uzumaki Naruto_

 _Clan Status: Uzumaki_

 _D.O.B: October 10_

 _Parents: Father - [_ _ **Redacted**_ _], Mother - [_ _ **Redacted**_ _]_

 _Village Standing: Shinobi – Genin - [_ _ **Redacted**_ _]_

Simply aligning the removed data allowed her to see all the missing data for it truth. Naruto Uzumaki the third **Jinchūriki** , son of Kushina Uzumaki the second **Jinchūriki**. A chain in the Uzumaki's apparent fate to become sacrifices to contain the greatest of demons. The only thing missing from the equation was Naruto's Father… That would be quite a bit trickier to find ou-

"What are you doing here?" A voice questioned from behind her, causing her to spin and find herself face to face with a large, imposing figure, a rugged head and face covered with old wounds and scars stared into her purple eyes. his head was covered by his forehead protector and he wore a darker version of the standard uniform of the Intelligence Division, which she had seen her _father_ wear on occasion, along with a black trench coat and gloves.

Twilight broke out into a cold sweat. Morino Ibiki, the head of the **Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force** , possibly the worst person she could afford to run into.

His black eyes continued to drill into her own. "What are you doing here Ino? You know that you are not allowed here without supervision of a Chūnin." He stated as his face pressed further into her personal space, making her back-up and knock the table, spilling the documents out onto the floor.

Ibiki's attention was instantly draw to the documents. Twilights heart dropped as she saw him move to pick the documents up and sort through them.

His gaze was cold as he stared at the documents. "You should not be viewing these, these are highly classified documents." He almost growled as he slowly began to turn back to her.

Twilight was terrified as she felt his aura encompass her, the familiar feeling of death crawled its way up her neck as she felt his killing intent claw into her.

But something most peculiar happened, her fear turned to calm anger, her trembling ended as her shoulders squared themselves as she felt her magic and chakra force its way around her in a poisonous, purple haze.

The moment Ibiki's eyes met her own, the effect was instantaneous. His face morphed into one of shock and terror as he watched purple cherry blossoms fall around Twilights face, her eye shadowed by her large bang. Her eye was as cold and as sharp as ice that carved into Ibiki's own, two commands were uttered by her stare alone.

 _Sleep and Forget_

His mind became clouded as she held the stare, his vision blurring in the gently falling petals. He dropped to his knees as he tried to call up his chakra, attempting to break the illusion he was feeling but every attempt felt like his own chakra was moving away from him, as if it was playing a game, keeping just out of reach.

His eyes closed as he fell forward on his face, asleep to the world.

Twilight coldly watched the unconscious torturer, her lips and voice acting by themselves as she unknowingly whispered a single word.

" **Hakufuku** …" She breathed out calmly before she robotically moved to collect the scattered documents and replaced them back into the cabinet in the correct order. Her eyes were blank as she spared one last glance to sleeping man, before teleporting out of the room in a dark purple flash.

Ibiki would later wake with no memory of what had occurred. And though he knew that something was amiss, no matter the method he would take, he could not find a single memory in his own mind that answered his loss of conciseness.

For the next two months' security around the hospital was seven-fold, but nothing ever happened outside the norm, leaving the case cold and dead.

* * *

 **Yamanaka Flower Store – Konoha – 2 Months Later**

Twilight sighed as she sat behind the counter of the _family's_ flower shop. The past two months had been hell for her, the hospital had been on high alert after Ibiki had awoken with no memories of what happened. Both she and Kabuto had been questioned about what they were doing during the time he was unconscious. Thankfully, Kabuto had kept quiet about her presence there, but this provided Twilight with two issues.

One: it reaffirmed that Kabuto was not exactly Loyal to Konoha.

And two: she was now in his pocket, she owed him and she knew that he would eventually call in a favour.

Other than that, the past two months were spent with her trying to figure out what she had done to Ibiki. It took several hours of searching her mind to find the memory of the occurrence.

 **Hakufuku** , White Crawl… something about the spell seemed off. And no matter how she tried to replicate it she couldn't. So far it seemed that she would only be able to use the spell when her body is in a state of stress. And this spell seemed to be bordering on dark magic, something inside of her magic had felt corrupted ever since she used it. Whether it be an effect of her magic interacting with the demon chakra or her guilt and sin of being a murderer reflecting into her magic, she didn't know.

Then there was the fact that her body had begun to change. The idea of going through puberty again wasn't something that particularly appealed to her but had accepted it as something that would be happening whether she liked it or not, but those weren't the changes she was concerned with.

What concerned her was the fact that her skin colour was naturally becoming darker and a small part of the roots of her hair had started to become a light pink. The change in her skin colour she could say that it was due to her spending more time outside, caring for her _family's_ plants in the sun for a while. And to hide the changes of her hair she had begun to dye her roots.

This raised so many questions, was her original body being super imposed onto this one? What was happening to her? Would she eventually shift into her original pony form? Or would she become a mix of the two?

Other than those pondering thoughts, she had dedicated the past two months to ensuring that her body correctly integrated Naruto's organ into herself, this led to the discovery that she was actively generating the demon's energy when her chakra entered the organ. Due to this her chakra capacity was steadily beginning to rise in level again, meaning that she needed to dedicate several hours a week to her chakra control.

This was admittedly, a double-edged blade: on one side, her chakra was much stronger than it normally would be, on the other side it was much harder to tame.

On a slightly better note was that her magic seemed to like the demonic energy. The corruptive and mutagenic nature of the energy enhanced her magic, but this also came with the effect of making her magic progressively darker. This effect was what caused the accidental usage of a previously unknown magic spell.

That was how some magic, especially dark magic, worked. You wouldn't learn the spells from books and scrolls, or have it taught by someone else, you would naturally receive them the further you used such magic.

Then there was the fact that a week ago, during training, Asuma had dropped the proverbial bomb on them about a specific event starting soon called the Chūnin Senbatsu Shiken, the Chūnin Selection Exams. An event that would allow her and her team the chance to be promoted from their Genin ranks to Chūnin. To Twilight, it seemed slightly trivial but it would give her the opportunity to gain more experience with other Shinobi from other villages and gain the needed authorisation to access the more restricted library in Konoha. By reaching Chūnin, she would be able to get access to the very basic techniques surrounding **Jikūkan** (Space-Time) Ninjutsu, one of the viable possibilities needed to allow for her to learn to dimension jump. So, unlike Shikamaru and Chōji, she was motivated to do it. The exams would be starting at the end of the week, something she was looking forward to.

Sighing in boredom, Twilight allowed her Kagura Shingan to encompass the half of the village, her new maximum range. She could sense so many new chakra signatures that she wasn't familiar with, some sharp, some airy, hot, murky or fluid. Then there were a few that felt like strange mixes, she was slowly becoming accustomed to these energy's. Each one that felt different or she wasn't familiar with was normally a Shinobi from another village, so she took her time in analysing everyone, breaking down their energies into their baser elements to learn as much as she could.

Thought something was different, a signature had caught her attention, at first, she assumed it to be Naruto, but that changed when the signature walked through the shop door.

He had fair skin, green eyes, and short red, spiky hair. He lacked any distinctive pupils, like her, or eyebrows. Around his eyes were black rings, like that of a tanuki. He had a red tattoo of kanji for "love" (愛, ai) on the left side of his forehead, just visible through his hair's parting.

He wore a black body suit with an open neck, t-shirt-like sleeves, and almost full-length leggings. He had a white cloth over his right shoulder and the left side of his hips. He had a wide leather band from his left shoulder to his right hip with which he had a large gourd strapped to his back. Attached to the band, a loosely hung forehead protector rested.

 _'A Suna-Nin? And a_ _ **Jinchūriki**_ _too.'_ She mussed as she straitened up, a customer was a customer.

"Good day Ninja-San, welcome to the Yamanaka flower shop. How may I help you today?" She greeted with a forced smile. Instantly, the boy's cold green eyes shot to her own indifferent eyes.

Almost no emotions were present on the boy's face, though a form of irritation seemed to be present. "No." He answered coldly and simply.

Twilight's eyebrow rose at the answer, but she simply shrugged it off.

"Are you here for the Chūnin exams?" She asked as she pulled a few empty pots out from under the counter.

He held his cold gaze as she continued to organise the pots. "Yes." He replied, sounding slightly unsure.

Twilight smiled as she poured some soil into the pots. "Well I wish you the best of luck then. I hear that it is a rather hard exam to sit through." She said as she pulled out a few seeds before gouging holes into the dirt.

"I do not care for the exam, I only seek to validate my existence." He drawled out as he turned back to the plants lining the shelves.

Twilight said nothing as she closed the soil up, though her eyebrow rose slightly as she brought her gaze back to him.

"And how do you do that?" She asked, not really expecting to get an honest answer.

"Killing, that is how I validate my life." He replied casually as he turned to the now wide-eyed girl. "I kill because that is all I need, that is what mother has taught me, and all I need." He continued with a twisted grin forming on his face as sand slowly began to gather in the air from his gourd.

Twilight took a cautious step back as she watched the chakra infused sand slowly slither across to her. Slowly, she let her mind's eye encompass the sand.

Instantly, her vision went black as a giant claw made of sand gripped her painfully tight. She began to tear up in fear at the sight of what connected to the arm holding her.

A giant sandy-brown coloured tanuki, with black markings all over its face, body, and tail. It had a jagged, concave of a mouth. Its eyes were yellow with a four-pointed star as its pupils with four black dots surrounding it. The sclera of its eyes was pitch black.

Slowly, the giant monster brought her closer to its great maw. Silence reined as she kept her eyes locked with the great beast's. Its eyes studied her as it began to squeeze her, like a predator, playing with pray it knows has no chance of escape.

Twilight gritted her teeth as felt its grip tighten and constrict painfully, her bound hands desperately clawing at the sand that threatened to crush her.

 **"And who is this little ningen?"** The great beast bellowed its question as it gave an experimental squeeze, making Twilight scream in response. The great monster grinned at the sound, just another pathetic disappointment for it crush!

"I take it that your _mother_ , **Ichibi** (One-Tail)?" Twilight growled out as she focused her attention through the pain, her fear now being ignored and suppressed by the cold scientist inside.

 **"Ooohh, the little insect knows about the great Ore-Sama?"** The Ichibi replied with a mocking tone of voice, thought Twilight could sense a little bit of intrigue. It was hard to tell, she had never actually had a conversation with a tailed beast so this whole conversation was rather surreal to her, never mind painful.

"How are we talking, I never entered your **Jinchūriki's** mind?" She asked as she managed to finally get a handful of the sand holding her, the Ichibi never showed any form of pain, so it had no concept of pain at all or its sand is just simple sand.

 **"The moment you connected your chakra to the Sand I was able to see you."** It replied as its gold and black eyes bore into her.

"Then how is it you are causing me physical pain?" She asked as she began to flood her system with her **In'yu Shōmetsu** , dampening the damage she was receiving as well as reinforcing her bone and muscle structure.

The Ichibi scowled at the feeling of the chakra flooding his plaything's squishy body… it was making her less squishy… and then there was the fact that it felt familiar to something, but for the life of him he couldn't place it.

 **"My oh so loving** ** _son_** **is currently doing the very same thing as me. Pain on two sides, mental and physical! Oh, the beauty of this is magnificent!"** It raved at her before it began to laugh insanely at her.

Twilight said nothing as the demon laughed, sweating as she tried to think of an out. If both the **Jinchūriki** and beast are performing the same act, then in theory she was too. So not only was her mental representation being reinforced by her **Shikotsumyaku** , but also her real body, normally her physical and mental representations reacted differently from one another. Her real body could be on the brink of death while her mental body would be completely fine, this changes things.

If her mental and physical bodies are currently synchronized, then she could mentally do something she had been dreading and anticipating performing in the real world.

Twilight gritted her teeth in pain, her skin felt like fire was licking away at it, all the while her skin was bulging and shifting under the sand coffin that was slowly began to creep up her neck to encompass her whole body.

Through the pain, she took one final big breath before her whole body was covered.

 **"HAHAHA! NOW YOU DIE YOU DISAPOINTING PEST!"** The great sand tanuki screamed as it violently compacted in a visible shockwave.

He blinked in confusion when nothing happened. No scream, no fountain of lovely blood… Why could he still feel her pathetic heart beat in his grip?!

And as quickly as Twilight had found herself in her mindscape, did she find herself gasping for breath on the floor of her family's shop with sand rapidly retreating from her.

Glancing up through her hacking breath she found the sand ninja holding his head in pain as the sand floated back into the gourd on his back.

She winced in pain as she found several large bumps of protruding bones scattered across her body. With a pain filled cry, she began to retract her chakra from her bones.

Loud cracks echoed through the room as her body began to snap and twist, the bumps of bone clicking under her skin as they slowly began to vanish one by one.

Twilight groaned as she forced herself to stand, bones still popping in her legs, making her wobble. As she hobbled over to the counter.

Grunting, she turned her slightly deformed face, which was clicking back into it normal structure and said. "Get out of my shop, and I won't press charges against you in trying to kill a clan heir of an allied nation." She growled as she glared at the red head who simply looked at her with a crazed expression before it melted back into his cold look. He spared one last glance at the blonde before leaving.

Twilight sighed as she sat on the stool behind the counter. That was interesting to say the least, she would need about an hour to reverse what she had done to herself. To withstand the great amount of compression caused by the sand, she had used her **Shikotsumyaku** to try and create bone plates of Armor under her skin. But due to her inexperience, she accidently made her body simulate Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, but even that was enough to save her.

So, for the next hour she sat and waited for her body to slowly heal and return to its original skeletal structure. Once she felt the last bone pop back into place, she closed the shop and used the **Shunshin no Jutsu** towards Training Ground 3.

A few moments later she reached the field. Walking across the clearing she sat next to the Jōnin she had been searching for.

Kakashi, face forever stuck inside his little orange book. "And how can I help you today Ino-chan? I am fairly certain that you have your own sensei you can talk to." He asked in his usual board voice, his eye never leaving the page.

"What are the laws regarding **Jinchūriki** from allied nations entering an ally's village?" She asked as she made a tendril of water from the stream dance, something she had found herself doing when stressed as of late.

"Well there are few… But why do you want to know?" He asked with a serious voice. Ever since it was confirmed to how she knew of Naruto's secret, she had become slightly more privileged with information regarding **Jinchūriki's**. So far, Kakashi was her most reliable contact regarding the info.

"Because one just tried to kill me." She said in complete seriousness as she made the tendril of water form into the very beast that held her life in its grip. "The Ichibi." She finished before her leg lashed out in a violent kick, her anger destroying the water model.

She hated the feeling of being helpless and powerless, that entire situation played on her insecurity's too much. ' _I must become stronger, I can't let that ever happen again, I need more power and the means to control it!'_ She though angrily.

Kakashi snapped his book closed and released a long sigh. What she was insinuating was obviously an incredibly high violation on the small level of trust that the two villages had for one another, but on the other hand it was the time of the Chūnin exams. Meaning that while there were rules to these matters, they were much more lenient with them as to allow privacy amongst the participants.

"Yes, there are rules regarding those matters, however they are not really enforced around events like the Chūnin exams, and you would need to prove that the **Jinchūriki** has indeed attempted to kill you." He answered as he slowly stood and gazed up into the sky, where he saw a single eagle circle overhead. "Look, don't take this up with anyone else ok, I will tell the Hokage. But without actual proof it could start a war." He warned before he vanished in a flicker of leaves.

Twilight scowled, before her face twisted into a snarl. More red-tape stupidity was working against her, how in Tartarus was she supposed to have proof?!

She frowned as she forced herself to calm down, getting angry would do nothing. With a cold look, she pulled a small sack out of her kunai pouch.

She silently opened the bag and smirked at the small amount of sand inside, still teeming with Bijū Chakra.

"At least it wasn't a complete lose." She muttered to herself as she closed the bad and vanished in a blur of speed away from the training ground, plans forming in her mind as to the upcoming future.

* * *

 **Twilight is changing... for the good, for the bad? I have three damn books planned in my head for all this stuff...**


	3. Chapter 3: War of Progression

Note: These updates are definitely going to be sporadic, my life is pretty bad at the moment... But as I am writing this, my dog is having a dream and is twitching... Life isn't so bad.

 **Chapter 3: War of Progression**

 **Shinobi Academy – Konoha – 1 Week Later**

Twilight sighed as she sat with her team, surrounded by the countless other Chūnin applicants, everywhere she looked she could see variations on the standard shinobi outfit ranging from white, green and red with lots of other colours thrown into the mix.

Recently, she had been contact with Haku through her green fire. She had learnt quite a bit from the Hyōton user, even going as far as to share some Jutsu to increase their trust for one another.

Her attention was caught when Naruto burst into the room with Sakura and bruised Sasuke behind him. She suppressed a smirk at his annoyed look, the arrogant ass looked incredibly annoyed.

Twilight almost growled in annoyance when she saw Choji and Shikamaru go over to them, followed slowly by Hinata, Shino and Kiba. Grumbling under her breath, she silently cast an illusion over herself to stop people from noticing her presence as she slowly made her way over to them.

She enhanced the spells power when she saw Kabuto's gaze on them and slowly made her way back to her seat, but she channelled Chakra into her ears to enhance their capability's.

She silently growled at Kiba, Naruto and Shikamaru, their comments having garnered a lot of attention from the room. Making their teams higher targets by the understandably nervous participants.

"Hey, you should be a little quieter." Kabuto called as he walked towards them. "You guys are the 'rookie ni- err eight'?" He asked as he carefully glanced around the room, undoubtedly looking for her. His eyes slowly skipping over her position, before turning back to the others.

"Who're you? Acting all haughty!" Sakura yelled at him, drawing even more attention to them from the now visibly agitated Genin.

Twilight watched as Kabuto scowled before it was covered in an almost perfect smile… almost perfect.

"I'm Yakushi Kabuto. Anyway, please take a good long look around us." He calmly replied as her fellow Genin finally noticed the murderous looks they were receiving from the Genin, even those of their own village. "You see the ones with the straw hats and umbrellas? They are from the Rain Village, hot tempered and rather twitchy. Everyone here is tense before the exam. You guys needed a warning before you get your butts kicked in this test." He informed them. "It can't be helped though; you guys are rookies that don't know their lefts from rights… you remind me of myself at your age." He told them happily.

Twilight scowled, Kabuto had never once been this friendly with anyone at the hospital… or with anyone outside the hospital for that matter. Something was defiantly not right.

"You're Kabuto… right?" Sakura asked… making Twilight's eye twitch. He just introduced himself not three minutes ago!

"Yes." He replied.

"Then this is your second time?" She asked. Twilight blinked, that was a good question that she never even thought to ask in all the time she spent with him.

"Nah, it's my seventh. These exams are held twice a year, this is my fourth." He replied.

Twilight tuned out of conversation, most of it being mindless dribble that she gladly deleted from her mind. Small bits of data would be useful but most was stupid and useless…

Then the truly interesting information finally surfaced. "Then, maybe I'll give a bit of Information to my cute juniors..." He said, as he reached into his Shinobi tool pouch for something.

"...With these Ninja Info Cards." He informed as pulled out a deck of cars.

"Ninja info Cards" Sakura questioned.

"To put is simply, they're cards that have information burned into them and coded with Chakra." Kabuto told them, as he knelt on the ground. "I spent four whole years gathering information for this Exam. There are close to two hundred of these cards. They are pure white to the eye. To open the data on these cards." He said, as he stared to spin one of the cards on his finger and poured chakra into the card.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked.

"The way it works is that no one can see the info without using my Chakra for example. Like this." Kabuto informed, the card was engulfed in a poof of smoke, only to disperse showing a map of the Elemental countries.

"Whoa, Awesome! What information is this?" Sakura questioned.

"The number of test-takers and participating nations, and the number of applicants from each respective village is individually displayed. Why do you think that the Chūnin Exam is jointly conducted in the first place?" Kabuto asked, waiting for an answer that he never received.

"It's said it's done to deepen friendship among the Nation's first and to boost the Shinobi levels, second." He explained.

"It's said?" Sasuke asked, confused to the hidden politics of Ninjas.

"We are Ninjas, the Chūnin exams are really here to measure the balance of Shinobi levels amongst the nations. This is to ensure there is an equal balance of power, a way to try and reduce the chance of wars from starting." He lectured to the shocked looking children.

"Truly a bothersome thing." Shikamaru groaned.

Sasuke looked unfazed by the new information, instead his eyes were glued to Kabuto's own. "Those cards, do you have any regarding individuals?" He asked, but Twilight knew it was a demand.

Kabuto smirked, glasses glinting ominously. "Oh, someone has got your attention? Or is it that you might have gained someone else's?" Has asked as a tense silence followed, the sounds of kunai's being slowly ready sounded through the room. "But yes, it isn't perfect but the information is burned in. Who do you want to know about?" He asked as the tension suddenly raised to even higher levels.

"Gaara of the Sand Village, Rock Lee, Neji Hyūga and Ino Yamanaka of the Leaf Village." He requested. Many people looked at him in confusion from asking for the details of not one, but three of his own ally's. Many of her fellow rookie's gazes found her in confusion, their attention being directed on her fully for a moment, breaking through her spell.

"Oh, you know their name's, that makes it easy." Kabuto said, drawing everyone's attention back to him as he pulled four cards out of the deck.

"Show me please." Sasuke requested, showing he in fact did have manners.

"First, Rock Lee. One year older than you guys. Mission experience: twenty D-ranks and eleven C-ranks. Squad leader is one Might Guy. In just this year alone he has boosted his Taijutsu incredibly, but his other skills are none existent. They didn't take the exams last year, presumably to train further. His team mates consist of Neji Hyūga and Tenten." He recited.

"Neji Hyūga, basically the same stuff other than him being a prodigy in basically everything and has a bloodline." He said with a sheepish expression.

"Next Gaara of the Desert. Mission experience: eight C-Ranks, B-Ranks…Wow, one B-Rank as a genin, eh. He's a shinobi from a different land and is a rookie, so there is no further detailed information. But it seems he returned from all of the missions uninjured." The Medic informed them.

"B-Ranked as a Genin...but uninjured?!" Shikamaru stumbled out.

"Then there is Ino. Mission experience: sixty D-ranks and one-hundred and thirty-two C-ranks and one C turned A-rank. Note: most of the C-ranks are due to her status as a Medic-Nin working at the hospital. Hmm, she finished the academy several years early and is considered a prodigy and genius rivalling that of Itachi Uchiha, who followed a similar pattern, the only difference being she became a medic and has not received any Field Promotions like he did. Team consists of Chōji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara, led by Asuma Sarutobi, making up the next generation of the Ino-Shika-Chō Trio. Of note, she is one of the few people to have faced a member of the **Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū** and not just survive but kill him." He recited with an impressed tone of voice that Twilight could tell was dripping with humour.

Everyone's eyes were firmly on her, feeling a little uneasy she channelled her Killing intent, which had become something powerful thanks to her corrupted chakra, while moving her gaze along everyone in the room. Looking through them all and never stopping with an empty expression on her face. Suffice to say she unnerved a good number of the other participants, forcing them to look away. _'Thanks for that Kabuto… way to paint a target on my back… what in Sun Butt's name are you up too?'_ She thought with some anger.

"Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Sound there are lots of exceptional Genin from those villages who have come to take the Exam this year as well. As far as the Village Hidden in Sound goes, it's a village of a small nation sprang up in recent years, so there isn't much information. At any rate, they're all Hidden Villages with nothing but crackerjacks." He finished.

The Genin all began to mutter amongst themselves, that was until Sakura said something rather smart. "So, all the applicants here are…" she trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence she had undoubtedly already finished in her mind.

"That's right! Not just Lee, Neji, Gaara and Ino, but they're all choice top elite Genin from each nation. This isn't going to be easy." He finished for her.

A couple of minutes passed as Twilight watched Naruto seem to spaz-out, but she was as shocked as everyone else in the room by what followed.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki! I won't lose to any of you! Got it?!" he shouted while pointing out at everyone.

 _'… Naruto, you're an absolute idiot!'_ Twilight thought through the shocked silence. Everyone was glaring at the orange clad Nin'.

Before she could focus more on the idiotic action, another took its place. That being three sound shinobi racing at high speeds towards Kabuto, a low ringing met her ears that she normally would have ignored, but considering these were _Sound-Nin_ , she took note of it as Kabuto's Glasses cracked and he suddenly vomited.

"Write this on your card. Doubtless Chūnin." The Sound shinobi started only for the Procter entered dramatically.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting. I'm Ibiki Morino, proctor for the first test of the Chūnin Exam." Ibiki announced. Twilight sighed at the absolute need that these Ninja's seemed to need for dramatics.

Twilight zoned out as she listened to the rules Ibiki was giving them after she had sat down. The rules were easy enough to see through, you need to cheat due to the questions being above the average Chūnin's knowledge, which she could blitz through easily and did so in close to five minutes before she flipped her sheet over and began to look around her fellow participants.

Those with Dōjutsu were using them to full effect while others were using various tools or techniques to cheat… How Tenten fixed the mirrors to the ceiling she honestly wanted to know.

Growing bored and knowing that she would need to help Chōji and motivate Shikamaru, she began to go through hand seals under her desk.

" **Shinten Bunshin no Jutsu** (Mind Transfer Clone Technique)." She muttered as she sent two copies of her consciousness at her two team mates with the command to fill out the exam sheets for them. After two minutes the cloned spirits faded, giving the two control over their body's back.

Having nothing left to do and knowing that she and her team would pass, she decided to begin playing with sand… the sand that still teemed with the corrupted chakra.

So far, the most she could do was hijack the energy with the demonic energy insider herself, giving her basic control over the sand, she couldn't do anything other than move several hundred particles at once across a surface. She couldn't make them float or make complex shapes so she we would defiantly not be able to use it as a weapon or shield like she suspected Gaara would be able to.

Growing bored of the shifting sands she returned it to her pouch before crossing her arms laying her head down, feigning the appearance of sleep as she expanded her **Kagura Shingan** across everyone in the room. Continuing her little hobby of examining the new chakra signatures surrounding her, though her eyes widened when she felt an almost identical pulse of chakra hit her, identical to her own 6th sense. Her purple, puipless eyes locked to red puipless ones. A Kusagakure forehead protect pulled her red hair from her face, a mesh shirt covered her chest with a light brown short sleeved jacket that had an orange stripe going across her chest. As she was sitting in front of Twilight she could see her wearing a set of stockings and a purple skirt with black shinobi sandals.

 _'Intresting?'_ Twilight thought as she began to send more chakra into the air and directed it towards the Kusa-nin, she knew that there was close to thirty other sensors in the room were very confused as to the strange chakra activity she was doing. But she was satisfied as she watched the red-heads eyes follow the cloud of invisible, dark purple energy.

 _'Perhaps it wasn't caused by my magic…'_ She mused as she filled the little piece of info she gained away in the back of her mind before she re-absorbed the chakra and closed her eyes.

She silently waited for the next 47 minutes to pass, listening to the sound of pencils scrape along paper, both from the participants and staff.

She idly listened to Ibiki's threats at forcing them to fail with the final question, already knowing how his mind works, to an extent, she simply waited as the other contestants slowly began to filter out the room.

She jumped in surprise when Naruto slammed his hand down onto the table. "I never give up! That's my Nindo!" He screamed to the shock of the room, and incredibly the stupid act made the other shaking covered Genin to stop and gain confidence.

Twilight was seething, the little idiot just increased the competition! While she preferred the idea of winning these exams fairly, she more liked the idea of minimalizing the bloodshed that would no-doubt follow.

Her anger was stopped when a ball shot through the window, sending glass shards flying in all directions.

"All right brats!" A woman's voice rung out. Standing in front of a large banner was a woman with black hair with a blue tint styled into a fanned pony tail. Her chest was covered in a chain-link mesh body suit that highly accented her large breasts. An orange mini-skirt held by a dark blue belt and pale blue shin guards decorated her legs. A large, tan overcoat covered her body with a purple in-seam.

Behind her was a large banner being held up by Kunai, written on it was 'The sexy and sing: Anko Mitarashi!'.

Twilight's eyes dulled as she listened to the asinine conversation, though she shuddered when Anko stated that the competition would be cut in two, and if her blood-thirsty aura was anything to go on, they wouldn't simply be disqualified.

 **Forest of Death – Konoha – 1 hour later**

Twilight stood with her team outside the giant fenced off forest. The rest of the Genin hopefuls stood around, waiting for Anko to start the next phase of the exam.

"All right kiddies, this place is called the Forest of Death… you'll all soon realize why first-hand." She said ominously.

Twilight's attention was forced to her right as she watched Naruto do a very un-flattering impression of Anko. "This place is called the Forest of Death!" He called out in a high-pitched tone while doing a strange dance. "That won't work on me! I'm not scared!" He declared.

Twilight smirked as she watched Anko cut his cheek with a Kunai she threw at incredible speeds, before she vanished and reappeared behind him, holding another blade to his neck. "Brats with lots of energy…" She trailed off as she moved to lick his blood, Twilight's smirk vanished, that is just plain unsanitary. "Die first…" she finished before she repositioned the blade behind her, holding it against the stomach of a Grass Ninja, who held the first Kunai by her tongue out for Anko to take.

"I'm returning your… Kunai Knife" the Ninja stated.

"Thank you for taking the trouble." Anko said though she seems annoyed… or disturbed. "But…don't stand behind me, when I'm thirsty for blood. If you don't want a quick death." Anko said as she collected her kunai.

"Well it's my nature to act up at the sight of red blood. And my precious hair was cut, so I got excited...I'm sorry." She replied before her tongue retracted into her mouth and walked off.

Anko returned to the front. "Well. Before we start the second test, I have to pass these out to you all!" Anko stated as she pulled a stack of papers. "These are consent forms, before you can take part in the test you have to sign this" she continued.

"Why?" Naruto asked as he rubbed his cheek.

"From here on out, there will be corpses. I have to get your consent to that or it'll be my responsibility." Anko answered with a laugh.

"Well, I'm going to start the explanation for the second test. In a word, the limits of your survival will be challenged. First, I'll give you step-by-step instructions on the terrain of this Training Field. Training Field Number 44 is surrounded by 44 locked entrance gates, there are rivers and a forest and a tower in the middle. It's about ten kilometres from the towers to the gate. In the confined area, you will go through a certain survival program. The contents of which is…an anything goes scroll battle!" Anko explained as she pulled to scrolls out one marked with the kanji for Heaven and the other with the kanji for Earth.

"I want you to fight for the two scrolls, the Heaven Scroll and the Earth Scroll. Altogether, 26 teams got through the first test. Half of them 13 teams get the Heaven scroll, the other half get the Earth Scroll. I'll hand over one scroll to each team. To put it simply that's what you're fighting for." Anko continued to explain seriously.

"And the conditions to pass?" Sasuke asked.

"Your team must bring both the Heaven and Earth Scrolls to the central tower." Anko answered.

"That means, of the 13 teams, half of them will definitely fail." Sakura stated.

"Furthermore, it has to be in time. For this second test, the time limit is five days!" Anko told the group.

Twilight zoned out of conversation again as she focused her senses on one Genin, a certain Grass ninja with long hair and creepy tongue. Her chakra, it was twisted, dark and corrupted in all ways, an inky purple radiated from her chakra. It took a lot of will power for her to not physically gag at the sensation she received from simply seeing it, never mind feeling it through her **Kagura Shingan**.

After a few minutes, everyone signed the consent forms, and Twilight was handed a Heaven scroll that she hid beneath her arm warmer in a storage seal painted on her left arm. After, they were escorted to one of the many gates surrounding the forest.

After waiting in a tense silence for a while, and alarm suddenly sounded with the gates snapping open. With a grumble, Shikamaru and Choji followed her into the deadly game of death.

Hopping from tree-branch to tree-branch they sped through the forest, avoiding any potential wild animals and reducing the possibility of running into any Shinobi who might stay on the ground. After about two hours of non-stop jumping they stopped.

Twilight's **Kagura Shingan** was blazing as she monitored the competition, she _saw_ as more and more of the lights of Chakra vanished from existence, each signifying another life taken for this test. The more Twilight thought about it the more she realised she found herself unable to care for the blatant loss of life, and that slightly disturbed her. But like everything else she bottled it, after all this wasn't her world.

Why should she care, she had no intention of staying any longer than possible?

"We should rest here." She said towards her two companions. "The nearest team is thirty minuets east from here. We are going to need a strategy for this, three teams are already… down…" She said as she sat down on the large tree branch.

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome, this exam is too much trouble." He groaned as he dropped opposite from her.

"Umm…" Chōji moaned as he glanced around with his eyes squinted, unease rolling off him in waves. He glanced around a few more times before sitting down.

"Okay, we have a scroll already, and that means that we are only being hunted by a maximum of twenty-sev - oh, make that twenty-four Genin… Roughly half of them will be Konoha, but that doesn't mean we can trust them." She explained with a slight twitch at feeling another teams Chakra sources vanishing. "Especially Kabuto's team." She said as an afterthought, drawing both her team-mates attention in confusion.

"Wait, you mean your teacher?" Chōji asked in disbelief. "Why would he be hostile?"

Twilight glared at one of Chakra signatures she recognised through the forest. "He revealed private information about Ninja, not just the enemy, but of his allies in a room filled with potential enemy's." She ranted. "Then let's not forget that he should not have access to said information… Recent interactions with him haven't left me confident in him, so he is to be considered a flee on site priority." She explained to them.

"So, besides the fact that you seem to not like Kabuto-Sempai, what do you propose?" Shikamaru sighed.

Twilight smirked as she pulled out a scroll. "This is a blank scroll, costs very little and can be bought in bulk." She then pulled out a paintbrush and inkwell.

A few strokes of the now wet brush against the scroll. "A little ink and ta-da~" She sung as she turned it back to the two males, revealing the scroll now having the Kanji for 'Earth' painted perfectly along the cover.

"Now while we can't use these, what's to say we can't fool a few other teams? Buy our way out of a tough situation or even trade one for a spare scroll." She finished as she smirked. "As we aren't allowed to open them then no one can claim them to be counterfeit. If we are careful and get out of this forest as quickly as possible, then we don't need to worry about the aftermath of this tactic." She finished as she pulled out a couple more scrolls. "Now, we can also limit the possibility of conflict by appeasing the opponent, allowing us a more peaceful path to the tower… That is assuming that the teams we encounter aren't violent sociopaths." She finished as she handed her partners the fake scrolls.

Shikamaru sighed again as he examined the scrolls. "Why this plan is very dangerous, it does give us the least possibility for conflict… Troublesome." He moaned as he pocketed his scrolls along with Chōji.

"So, if we play our cards right we could get through this without hurting anyone at all?" Chōji asked with a little hesitance, seemingly in a calmer state of mind then before. "I like this plan… I like it a lot." He said with much more confidence.

Shikamaru twitched as several roars sounded throughout the forest. "We should stick together, the quicker we get to the tower the better."

Twilight nodded, that would be the safest possib- What the?

Her head shot to a dark part of the forest, that twisted and vile chakra was in fluctuation, its vile nature constantly colliding with a dark Chakra. _'The Rain-nin and Sasuke?'_ She thought in confusion.

Her confusion grew as she felt a very familiar chakra flare. A chakra that stirred her own chakra within her liver. "Naruto… no." She breathed out before she began leaping away from her team with the **Shunshin**.

What in Celestia's name could have caused Naruto to begin entering a Tailed Beast form. That dark chakra must have been a much greater threat than what three ordinary Genin could stand up against.

Three minuets of jumping let Twilight watch one of the greatest fights she had ever seen. And allowed her to finally realise just how much of a gap in power there was between a prodigy of a Genin… and the untold genius of the King of Snakes.

Arriving at the thick woodland area, Twilight erased everything she could about her own presence and watched.

Naruto was standing opposite Sasuke, glaring at the boy visibly holding his Heaven scroll out to the Grass-Nin whose body had elongated and wrapped around the large tree branch watched with disinterest, her head resting on her hand.

"Idiot, what's to say she wont still come after us?!" Naruto shouted at his teammate who looked shocked that such a thought had never crossed his mind.

The woman chuckled as her body unravelled itself from the branch. "Well, I could just kill you and seize it." She drawled as she pulled her sleeve up, revealing a set of intricate seals designed as tattoos. She bit into her own thumb and drew blood down the centre of the seals.

Naruto, seeing this action. Charged straight at the woman, kunai in hand while screaming. "Don't mess with me!"

He was pushed straight off the branch as a huge gust of wind picked up, and in the centre, was the woman, standing atop a giant brown scaled snake. Naruto had barely any time to react as the snake brought its full weight crashing down through several trees at him. Luckily the wind helped him to dodge and land on an undisturbed branch, though his anger seemed to have subsided as he collapsed to his knees panting.

"Kuku, you're such cute prey." The woman chucked out as the snake began moving again. Quicker than Naruto could track, the snakes tail lashed out and swatted him into a branch above. As his body slowly fell from the crater, the snake moved to intercept the falling orange boy. "Finish him." The woman commanded. But was shocked like everyone else when he flipped and kicked the snakes nose with much more strength than he previously had.

Looking towards Naruto revealed his hair had gained a little length, making it seem wilder. His whisker marks had become sharper and a little wider, his teeth had gained fangs and his nails had become claws. The most prominent change was his eyes, gone were the vibrant blue, in their place were a malicious red with a slit pupil.

Twilight finally took stock and found Sakura kneeling on a branch. "Naruto… He's lost control…" Sakura muttered, before she held her hands up to her face. "But… this Naruto, why is he so strong?!" She questioned in disbelief.

For the next few moments, Naruto simply refused to back down. With each strike sent at him he would get back up and charge straight back in to the fight. That is until he was sent flying straight through several branches, landing painfully on his back.

Twilight growled silently as the Kyūbi Chakra within her began to play up with the original source being so close and active. Her own eyes flashed between their pupiless purple and a violent red with a faded pupil. Though, unlike Naruto, as she already had a great deal more self-control, she began to rapidly bring the energy under her command, leaving her eyes their emotionless purple. She silently mused that the only reason she had little control over it was because she had never experienced a tailed beasts rage state before.

"Those eyes…" The grass-nin muttered in recognition.

Sasuke seemed to be even more confused. "That's… Naruto?!" He muttered in disbelief. Though he was frozen as the woman and her snake shot towards him.

"Sasuke-Kun!" Sakura called out in panic.

Both Sakura and Sasuke stared in open shock as Naruto appeared before the snake, with two kunai being buried into its scales and chakra at his feet, connecting him to the branch, stopping the snake from moving completely.

"Hey, are you hurt?" Naruto's voice asked, being much rougher than it was before. "Scaredy Cat?" He mocked as her glared at the Uchiha.

Whatever flashback Sasuke was having was cut short when the Grass-Nin's tongue overextended and wrapped around Naruto several times before pulling him into the air. Naruto cursed and screamed as he tried to get out of the hold.

The Kusa-Nin smirked as she brought him closer to her, before the fingertips on her right hand lit up with purple fire. She lifted Naruto's jacket up, exposing the visible seal of the Nine-Tails to her.

" **Gogyō Fūin** (Five Pronged Seal)!" She called out as she thrust the purple fire into his stomach, surrounding the seal.

Naruto released a scream of pain as new symbols carved their way into the edges of the seal. Naruto's pupils pulsed before his eyes turned back to their original blue. He then fell unconscious in the tongue's grip.

Without any hesitation she threw the boy behind her at great speeds, sending him flying towards the ground.

Sakura threw a Kunai at the boy, possibly to snag his clothing against the adjacent tree. She might have succeeded had he not vanished completely behind another tree, leaving his fate to the three in the clearing of branches unknown.

Twilight panted as she held the orange clad boy over her shoulder. Using the Body Flicker on herself was one thing, but she had never used it to pick someone up mid travel before. She gently laid him down as she tried to study the new seal over the old. She silently cursed as she found it to be much more complicated than anything she had ever seen before.

Her attention was drawn back to the Kusa-Nin when the snake she was standing on exploded into smoke.

"Just what I expect from the Uchiha clan…" She commented when Sasuke took a combat stance, having finally hardened his resolve.

Placing a Kunai into his mouth, he leaped into the air, flipping upside down while simultaneously throwing several Kunai at the enemy. The Kusa-Nin smiled as she flowed from left to right, easily evading the blades.

Sasuke landed vertically on another branch that he used to launch back at her with a war-cry. He lashed out with ferocious kicks, one foot after the other which were blocked by the lime dressed opponent. He then used her arms to spring-board over her, avoiding a high-kick in the process. He jumped back several feet before charging at the now mobile opponent.

Before he could go on the offensive, she became a literal blur, speeding around the battlefield just faster than Twilight could track. Though Sasuke seemed to be quite able to track her as he jumped at the last moment before the tree he was standing on exploded in a shower of splinters.

The woman finally came to a stop opposite his landing point, and by simply throwing her arms out in front of her, sent a literal tornado of wind hurtling at him. Sasuke rapidly began leaping from branch to branch, avoiding the assault of wind. He rapidly closed in on the snake summoner and with a surprise kick to the head, sent her falling to the ground below. Moving quickly, Sasuke intercepted her and locked his body around her own, forcing her to fall headfirst into a tree branch.

Jumping from the body, his eyes widened in shock when it turned into a pile of mud. He had little time to look for the opponent when a literal hail of Kunai came flying towards him, being forced to retreat, he jumped off the tree and wrapped some Ninja wire around a stub and used it to swing around the trunk of the tree.

Sasuke's eyes where darting this way and that, attempting to find the summoner somewhere in the forest. Though he spewed bile when a foot came out of the tree trunk straight into his stomach, the moment he had playing against him greatly.

He fell to the another of the branches, with the Kusa-Nin being just behind him, only she landed.

"How disappointing…" She muttered as she began to slowly walk towards the downed boy. That was until she heard a sizzling. She was suddenly sent flying forwards as several miniature explosions happened across her back, the micro bombs Sasuke had placed finally going off.

Suddenly Sasuke shot into the air, throwing several shuriken around the recovering Ninja.

"A **Sōfūshasan no Tachi** (Sharingan Windmill Triple Attack)?!" She asked in shock and awe when she spotted the Ninja Wire attached to each on, surprised at such a complex move being used by such a young boy. Suddenly, all the wires rapidly wrapped around the her, pinning her whole body to a tree.

Sasuke, still holding all the wires in place using his mouth, began going through hand signs rapidly.

 **Snake → Dragon → Rabbit → Tiger**

" **Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu** (Fire Style: Dragon Flame Technique)!" He called as his body seeming exploded with fire, said fire then rapidly travelled down the wires length, going straight for its intended target.

The resulting explosion was nothing to scoff at, making Twilight slightly envious at the skill the Uchiha had in his **Katon** nature.

Twilight kept her eyes locked on the fire as she stepped out of cover. After everything she had seen and learnt from the fight she had a fair incline as to who that really was.

She watched as the apparent corpse began walking, breaking the Ninja Wire.

"I didn't expect you would be able to use the **Sharingan** to such a level at your age." She complimented as her voice began changing, to that of a very deep male. "You truly are a member of your clan, Sasuke."

Her head raised, showing half of the skin having melted off, revealing another beneath. Suddenly she pulled out Sasuke's Heaven scroll. "My name is Orochimaru…"

Twilight cursed, her theory proven she was about to make her escape, when her world suddenly spun, and all she knew was pain before darkness overtook her.

 **Sasuke POV**

Sasuke was cursing his luck. While he knew, he was strong, he was an idiot to challenge the Orochimaru of the Sannin. After Orochimaru had knocked Naruto out with that strange sealing technique, he believed he had the upper hand when the man was in awe of his **Sōfūshasan no Tachi** and then torched him with the **Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu**. Of course, this was all before he learnt who his opponent actually was.

He had collapsed in exhaustion where he watched as the fires died down.

"Excellent work! You are truly gifted Sasuke-kun! For this performance, I shall give you a gift." Orochimaru's voice carried through the trees with unrestrained glee. Sasuke's **Two Tomoe Sharingan** eyes watched in slow motion as the Snake man's head shot towards him from the fire, his neck stretching to inhuman degrees.

Sasuke's mind was running out of options as he simulated every evasion technique he could think of. His eyes caught sight of a familiar figure in purple watching in fascination and he grimaced, this would bite him in the ass later.

Moulding the last of Chakra, he used the **Kawarimi no Jutsu** and switched positions with one Ino Yamanaka right before the fangs of Orochimaru could pierce his neck.

Twilight gasped as pain flooded her body from her neck. She screamed as she collapsed; her body spasming as three tomoe marks appeared on her neck. Orochimaru looked at her in annoyance and slight intrigue.

"I guess my subordinate will get his pet project sooner than expected." He said before his neck retracted and he slithered away, either no longer having interest anymore… or no longer able to give Sasuke his 'gift'.

Twilight could not think on his words as she was inwardly screaming as the Curse Seal dug its way into her Chakra network. She literally began screaming as her head irrupted into pain, clouding her mind and forcing her eyes closed.

Twilight's body was in confusion as to whether it should accept the seal and integrate with it, or reject it. Her magic was trying to reject it, recognising it as an invader that could cause potential harm to its host while her chakra was trying to accept it, deeming it an improvement and something that would give its host a boost in power.

Ultimately, the physical energy of her chakra over powered her magic temporarily and accepted the seal, beginning the conversion of her chakra into **Senjutsu** (Sage/ Nature) Chakra. Ino fainted as the process began, becoming numb to the world as her teammates jumped in and carried her away.

 **Twilights Mind**

" **Thee knoweth that shalt befall again? Thee art destined to be alone… except for I, yourself, thee can't trust anyone but yourself, me.** " A dark, melodious voice sung to Twilights ears.

She couldn't move, she could barely breath as all that met her eyes was a strange purple cloud, shifting with sections of gold particles.

" **Thee can't trust those folk, they aren't like us, we art weak, we needeth to be strong. The only way is you be strong is for thee to trust in yourself, me.** " The voice sung again, why did it sound so familiar to her?

"You can forget about being my best mare!" A familiar voice rung out. There, standing in front of her was her brother, eyes glaring down at her with hate and anger. "In fact, if I were you, I wouldn't show up for the wedding at all…" He growled out. Twilight gasped as she desperately tried to reach out for him, to tell him he was wrong, to prove that he was being misled. But he vanished into the purple cloud before she got anywhere even close.

"Come on ya'll, lets go check on tha' Princess." Applejacks voice rung out, drawing her attention behind her to see all her friends, even Spike, looking at her in disappointment. She wanted to reach out, oh how she wanted to tell them everything, to explain how they were wrong and would be damming her to hellish world.

But all they did was walk straight past her, each having an expression of anger. Even Spike couldn't meet her eyes.

" **Thy friends and thy family, none of those peasants can be trusted, thee can only rely on me, yourself – thee.** " The voice sung again, it dark nature seeming so comforting now, it familiarity scratching at her mind.

"You have a lot to think about…" Celestia said as she walked past her, not even sparing her student a fleeting glance.

And like that, Twilights world shattered again, past pains being brought to the surface as malicious emotions bled through the newly formed cracks.

" **How dare they, those peasants trust a fake over us… they can't be trusted! Our own teacher won't listen… they don't want us but need us at their convenience. We don't need those peasants, we can be strong without those folk, we art the strongest element…** " The voice sang again, this time much closer, coming just behind her left ear, it's dark allure caressing her neck.

Suddenly her vision vas filled with her being swapped with Sasuke, taking the hit for something that who knows what, and the pain came flooding back into her. The feeling of a parasite digging into her being, her very soul.

" **We has't been betrayed more times than we count. We art stronger alone, stronger without those folk. The Elements of Harmony only worketh with the strongest of the elements.** " The voice whispered against her skin, drawing a shivered breath from her.

A delicate and cold hand gently cupped the side of her face, covering her right eye. Finally, the fog cleared, revealing a calm sea of black water.

A naked version of her older humanoid form looked back at her from the water, her hair was now waist-length and spiky with shoulder-length bangs framing the sides of her face, covering most of her right eye with her original hair colours having taken the place of her blonde hair and her skin had become as dark as some of the travellers she had seen who originated from **Kaminari no Kuni** (Land Of Lightning). Her breasts were noticeably larger than she expected them to be, along with her rear, she could see her body was very curvy but still layered with hard muscle that didn't budge.

Her one visible eye stared back at her with a strange variant of the **Sharingan**. A light pink iris surrounded a now visible white pupil, with three white tomoe lazily spinning around it and the whites of her eyes having become a dark grey.

 _In the real world, her body began to change on a genetic level, her brain being forced to produce new chakra that leaked into her eyes, awakening the powers of the Uchiha clan and carving her new Uchiha nature into her very soul, absorbing the lingering spiritual energy from Sasuke's power._

What really drew her attention was the figure behind her, holding her head and currently wrapping her other arm around her waist.

For all intents and purposes, was an exact replica of her in every way, only every colour was inverted in white, blacks and greys. The most striking feature was the copy's eyes, a piercing red took the place of the entirety of her eyes.

Her delicate facial features smiled gently towards Twilight through her reflection. " **My dear, me, we art the strongest and most adaptable of the elements, and with the power we art gaining hither in this… disgusting world, we can be safe from feeling that betrayal ever again… Don't thee concur, me?** " The copy asked as she slowly caressed Twilights matured body, smirking seductively the entire time.

Twilight gasped at the feeling, so lost in thought and emotion that she couldn't help it, everything her copy said sounded right. Why should she have to suffer for others when all that would happen would be that she would be hurt again and again and again?

"Yes, I agree, me." She breathed out as she turned around in the copy's grip and embraced her. "For we are the greatest element to exist, we adapt and eliminate our pain, isn't that right, me?" She chanted as she held the copy's face in her hands, the copy doing the exact same.

" **Aye, for we are…** " The copy breathed out as she brought Twilights face closer to her own.

" **Magic!** /Magic!" They announced as one before their lips finally met. Around them, the world visibly pulsed, a shockwave splitting the sea under them in a gargantuan wave.

 **Forest of Death – 1 day later**

Shikamaru and Chōji glared bloody murder at Sasuke, blaming him for their current predicament. Once Orochimaru had left, they had reluctantly decided to work together as each of their teams were currently a member down. Both Naruto and Twilight had been laid down next to one another.

Naruto was simply unconscious due to the strange seal placed on him.

It was Twilight who was of greater concern. She was running a fever, panting and refused to wake up at all. The seal on her neck kept pulsing, and her body kept releasing progressively more and more dark chakra.

Both of her teammates had seen Sasuke's last ditch effort to escape and to say they were pissed was an understatement. It had taken their concern for her to override their collective need to slaughter him. Sakura had been quite most of the time, expressing confusion and fear sometimes but otherwise was silent.

Sasuke himself was hating his lack of forethought. While he wasn't the biggest fan of her due to her outshining him, his revelation during his fight with Orochimaru did make him feel quite bad for his actions. But then again, he had just dodged whatever she was currently going through, so he was slightly glad she was there.

That changed when the team from **Otogakura** had arrived. Sasuke was already incredibly tired and worn from his fight with Orochimaru, meaning he was only able to help delay the three supposed Assassins, though he did seem to be their main target for some reason.

Shikamaru and Chōji were admittedly rather hindered without Twilight, as she was admittedly their strongest member and their combination tactics were crippled without her. And Sakura was pretty much useless in a straight frontal assault, but her traps had been able to catch the team off guard a few times.

However, the ruthlessness of the team proved to be much more than the four Konoha ninja could handle, especially with them still being at full strength.

Rock Lee had shown up partway through the fight but due to him fight against an enemy who wielded unknown techniques and equipment, his greatest attacks were rendered ineffective and ultimately was the first to be knocked out.

"How disgusting." A voice mocked, drawing everyone's attention to the trees above them, revealing Neji and Tenten looking down on them.

"Mere minor Sound scum… Acting like the victors because you beat down some second-class ninja?" He mocked again.

"What?!" The bandaged Sound ninja asked in anger.

"Lee! Ino!" Tenten called out in worry to her teammate and rival, in her eyes anyway.

"He screwed up." Neji complained as he looked towards his teammate, before his made their way back to the Sound ninja. "You guys are like roaches… coming out of the woodwork all the time."

"That bobbed hair kid is on our team…" He continued with an air of indifference. Before his **Byakugan** burst to life. "You went overboard on him!" He calmly roared at them, making them all flinch back.

"If this fight persists, then we shall fight with everything we have." He said as Tenten reached for her weapons. But he flinched back when his sight was lead to a truly disturbing sight.

Standing behind the mocking Sound Ninja stood someone he personally didn't like much. But instead of the once indifferent aura she released, her entire stature screamed… unstable. His eyes could see many things, one was the chakra she was releasing, its twisted and vile nature coiled around her body tightly like snakes.

Another was the current chemical imbalances in her brain. From what he could see, her Serotonin, Acetylcholine, Oxytocin and Gamma-aminobutyric acid levels were fluctuating rapidly and with no real pattern.

While Neji was no medic, he had spent a good amount of time studying the human brain with the purpose of learning how to read an opponent. While inexperienced in diagnosing such conditions. He could at least tell that the subject's mood would not be controlled at all, and that made her very dangerous.

The thing that shocked him the most though was one thing, her eyes.

Soon enough, everyone else was looking towards the beacon of negative energy.

Standing at one and a half meters tall, with vicious purple energy covering and licking her body in a violent storm, stood Twilight facing away from them. The winds caused by the energy had been enough to rip the bindings out of her hair, making her long blonde hair fly above her. Across the left side of her body, black flame-like markings were branded into her skin.

She slowly turned around to face them, her face locked in an indifferent look as, to the shock of everyone there, two pink **Sharingan** span in her eyes. A light pink iris surrounded her now visible white pupil, with two white tomoe lazily spinning around it and the whites of her eyes having become a dark grey. The eyes effect of surprise was only enhanced to fear as more of the black marks appeared around the left side of her face.

"Who are you?" She asked calmly, her face never changing emotion as she looked across the three Sound Genin. The lack of emotion shown or heard, left a feeling of dread in everyone there.

The three Sound contestants all looked at her in fear, recognising the markings spread across her body.

"Ino… Your body… Your eyes…" Chōji muttered in confusion and slight fear.

Twilight looked down at her left arm, seeing the black markings for the first time and seeing the purple energy clinging to her body.

"Do not worry, the importance of it is minimal. The power that surges through me…" She replied, this time emotion was present in her voice. Happiness? Or Humour? They couldn't tell.

That is when things went from a two to a ten quick.

She began to laugh.

At first it was hollow, not really having any fuel behind it.

Then it began to pick up as her body spasmed. Her laughs becoming filled with a burning fire.

She continued to laugh, becoming louder and louder as the seconds passed, her body arching backwards at an unnatural angle.

"I FEEL GREAT RIGHT NOW!" She cried as she continued to laugh.

"I FINALLY GET IT!" She screamed as her body's arch flipped, now holding her head in her hands she continued to laugh.

"I AM ALONE! HAHAHA! THERE IS NO ONE I CAN TRUST BUT ME! ISNT IT FUNNY?!" She screamed into her hands, still laughing with no control, though now it felt much more forced than before.

Slowly, her laughing began to grow quiet, it being overtaken by a ferocious sobbing.

"I don't understand... Why am always alone?" She cried into her hands as she sobbed, dropping to her knees as her cries turned into howls like that of a wolfs. All the while the black markings on her body turned an orange-red and began to spread father across her body.

Zaku, having been officially creeped out enough by the girl. Raised his arms in fear while screaming. "Shut up and die you crazy bitch! **Zankūkyokuha**! (Supersonic Slicing Wave)" He cried while releasing a massive gust of wind that shredded everything its path, levelling the surrounding area as it encompassed the kneeling girl.

After a few moments, he let the Jutsu die, revealing the destroyed landscape and lack of body. The three Sound Genin released a breath of relief they didn't know they were holding.

They all tensed as a low growl sounded behind them. "Was that supposed to hurt me?"

Zaku didn't have chance to react before he was sent flying through the air by an over powered and heavily enhanced punch to the back of the head. He collided against Kin, sending them both colliding into a tree.

Dosu, the calmest out of them all now, shuddered as he watched the sudden turn of tables. "She's blindingly fast, to be able to evade that attack and carry those two at the same time." He analysed as he finally noticed she had moved Naruto and Sakura along with her.

He flinched back when she started to speed through hand seals with just her left hand faster than he could track, the entire time looking as if she was rage incarnate. " **Sensatsu Suishō** (Secret Technique: Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death)!" She screamed as a thousand needles of water gathered in the air around her, all hovering for a second before flying at high speeds at Zaku.

Zaku, whose fear was overriding his common sense, raised his arms in a fear filled scream, sending a wave of wind at the water Senbon, dispersing all of them. But his eye's widened in alarm when he noticed there was a few dozen real Senbon flying at him, having been hidden and protected in the water ones.

He raised his arms to block the real needles, not having enough time to prepare another blast. He grunted in pain as the needles pierced deep into his flesh across his body.

"Below you Zaku!" Dosu called in alarm as Twilight appeared under him with a scream of bloody rage.

In another flash of movement Twilight had Zaku on the ground, his face half buried in the dirt as Twilight sat on his back holding his arms in reverse, forcing the bones inside to push and pull painfully against his muscles.

"You seem to be attached to these limbs… you let your anger, your rage fuel your action…or was it your fear?" She asked as she growled, pushing against his arms more, making him scream in pain.

Then Twilight screamed, not in pain, not in rage and not in fear… she just… screamed… along with him.

The more pressure she put on his arms, the more he screamed and the more she screamed in response.

This continued for a few seconds before Twilight suddenly pushed incredibly hard. Two loud snapping sounds cut through the screaming for a small moment, silencing both Ninja for a single moment.

Zaku screamed without restraint as his mind registered the bones in his arms shattering. Twilight too began to scream as she listened to Zaku's pained cries, all the while moving the arms she had just broken, increasing the boys pain.

After a few moments, she dropped the now crippled limbs to the ground in silence. Twilight silently stood, the entire time her head twitching uncontrollably until it snapped to the side, her **Sharingan** eyes clicked to Kin's own eyes.

Kin found herself unable to move, completely unable to control her whole body as she stared into the sinister pink eyes.

Twilights eyes locking back to Dosu's.

Dosu froze at the look and began shaking when an inhuman grin spread over Twilights face. "Are you going to be as funny as he was?" She asked as she giggled uncontrollably, taking very slow and seductive steps towards him.

She stopped when her head was sent flying to the side. Looking towards the source she found a fist connected to a certain orange clad ninja. Twilights growled as she prepared to lash at the new source of anger… that is until she saw his face, covered in fear.

He was brave enough to attack her, even while fear controlled his body… why?

Slowly, her eyes began to trail around the people in the clearing, each sporting a look of fear directed at her.

' ** _I think it's time for our fun to stop my dear, me. We shall control this vial thing_** **.'** The dark melody played in her mind as she felt the mark on her neck recede painfully. ' ** _Thee may wish to act confused darling, me. We shalt not enter such a state again for a while, but t'will cometh in time, we shalt prepare... and enjoy._** ' Twilight heard before she collapsed to the ground.

Twilight held a look of horror on her face as she examined her own hands, hands that she had just used to cripple someone. Yet… anyway she looked at it… she had fun. She _enjoyed_ , causing another being harm… then there was the voice.

Oh, how that voice felt so wrong singing in her head, yet so right. She knew exactly what the voice was, it was her. Her repressed emotions and belief that she was destined to be alone had solved the issue for her loneliness, by splitting her mind in two. While normally a truly detrimental mental condition, Twilight knew that rejecting her other self wouldn't end well.

Besides, she completely agreed with everything her other said when she first met her, why should she want to reject her now?

"The Curse Mark receded… it's over now." Dosu muttered as he slowly made his way to pick up his teammates.

"Leave your scroll!" She called as her eyes snapped to Dosu who was carrying his two unconscious teammates. Her eyes spinning rapidly as she glared at the Oto' Ninja. "And tell Orochimaru…" She said, freezing him in place. "… careful what you hunt… the prey is poisonous, even if slow to act." She spoke ominously as she unknowingly used her new **Sharingan** to enforce the command into his mind.

He shakily nodded as he dropped the scroll and ran off. Twilight walked over and picked the scroll up, smirking in satisfaction in finding an Earth scroll.

"Well then… I guess it's time for us to part ways." She said as she sealed the scroll away into the same seal as the Heave scroll. She began walking out the clearing, not bothered if anyone was following her, not even her team.

"Ino!" Sasuke called her, stopping her. "Your eyes, explain them now!" He called out as he shakily looked at her with desperation, fear and confusion.

Twilight said nothing as she slowly turned her head to face him, her pink and grey eyes glowing with malice and rage. In another flash of movement, slightly slower than before, she had him held off the ground by his throat. In her other hand she held one half of the Kiba blades pointed straight at his jugular.

"You dare demand anything from me?!" She shouted at him as she slowly began to apply pressure to blade, drawing a small trail of blood. She grinned as she watched his squirming form. "You can consider this to be the start of your repayment… trust me when I say that I will not stop… you owe me more than you can ever realise." She said as she dropped the last Uchiha to the ground.

' ** _He owes us much more my darling, me. We shall explain later, but for now we shall be unable to use Doton and Shikotsumyaku_** _ **techniques… And please limit the number of Jutsu we use, it will accelerate the seals power over us**_ **.** ' Her other self said as she silently began to drag her reluctant partners away. While she was curious as to what her other was saying, she needed to get somewhere safe before she would be able to perform a full diagnostic on herself.

While the changes were unexpected but not unwelcome, especially with her new **Sharingan**. But this seal, its very nature was corruptive. Even being restrained by her other self, she could feel it trying to claw her way into her brain with promises of power and greatness, at the cost of her freedom.

And while she craved to feel the power again, she and her other refused the very concept of being bound to another being. The very idea of being controlled was enough for them to resist the mark.

Still silently musing to herself, she was oblivious to the looks of her teammates as they began jumping through the trees, heading directly to the centre of the forest.

She stumbled as her eyes throbbed, suddenly the many colours she had been seeing vanished as the world returned to full speed. Growing curious, she pulled the Kiba to her eyes and found that they had returned to their original pupiless purple.

Channelling her chakra back into her eyes brought her faux Sharingan back to life. Cutting the connection, she expanded her Kagura Shingan, searching for the chakra of the second proctor. She smirked as she found her in the centre of the forest, from what she knew of her from Inoichi, Anko basically lived at that tower.

Getting impatient, she sped up, almost leaving her two partners behind. She was getting tired of being restrained by her need to hide, if she didn't need to she would have simply teleported to the tower. But thanks to Shikamaru and Chōji she couldn't simply do that.

Feeling her rage rise again, she lashed her arm out, sending an arc of purplish pink lightning into the woods from the Kiba. Unknowingly killing a large bear that threatened the life of a certain Kusa Kunoichi who watched the entire event play out in awe.

Screaming in rage all the while.

 **Forest of Death – Centre Tower – 2 hours later**

Twilight stood impatiently as she listened to Asuma grumble on about some nonsense about bettering oneself. It had taken only two hours after departing from the others to reach the tower, she relied on using her Magic being channelled through the Kiba blades to ward off other teams, having long since learned that her Bijū levels of mana were barely drained by the swords.

This allowed her to spam very powerful techniques that would normally require a lot of chakra for almost nothing.

Twilight tuned out the rest of the conversation as she decided to start a conversation… with her-self…

' _So, me, how do I refer to you… as you are me and I am you?_ ' She questioned herself with some amusement.

' ** _I don't has't a name, mine darling self, for I am thee_**.' Her other replied in equal amusement. Her voice then took a more serious tone. ' ** _We can understandeth that this could cause some confusion… it's a novel thing, selecting thy own name…_** ' She muttered as she began to think on the possibility's. **_'We shalt think of this another time darling… Looks like we art needed.'_**

Twilight blinked as she looked at Asuma and her team staring at her, one in fear, one in concern and another with an unreadable frown. "What?" She asked with half open eyes.

"Ino." Asuma stated with a frown. "We need to get that mark looked at now." He said as he tried to herd her out the room, only for her to weave around the Jonin and began walking deeper into the tower.

"I think not, I will not allow any interruptions in my possible progression to Chūnin." She countered, not entirely bothered about the seal for the moment, both her and her others combined will power alone easily held it at bay.

Asuma quickly ran ahead of her to block her path. "I don't think you realise exactly what that mark is!" He shouted at her in anger, he refused the possibility of repeating what happened between his father and Orochimaru, he knew deep down that he wouldn't be able to willingly harm her. "That thing is evil! We are going to have it sealed now! Its already having adverse effects on your personality!" He commanded as he made to grasp her by the shoulders.

Twilight growled at the man's persistence. Why can't she be left alone, his concern meant nothing regarding herself. What she did should mattered nothing to him, she would be leaving them and never seeing them again anyway so why did they have to be so dramatic?

She never even acted like an actual student to him, they held no emotional bond… Why was he acting like he cared?!

Twilight glared as her thoughts took hold. "You touch me and I swear that you will learn what I plan to do to those who have already betrayed me." She growled out, hate burning in her eyes, making Asuma flinch back in shock. "You are not my _teacher_ , you are not my _brother_ , you are not my _friend_ … you are nothing to me, so stop acting like I am yours to control." She commanded as she stared, unblinking into his eyes. "Do something useful and talk to the two behind us… I at least had the smarts to study this waste of time exam." She said as she walked around him, content to leave behind another teacher. "After all, it's a free for all now…" She called back ominously to her teammates.

A few minutes of walking later she found her assigned room, a single bedroom, perfect. After shutting the door, she sealed it with as much magic as she possibly could before she reinforced the walls in the same way.

Once satisfied with her work, she sat cross-legged on her bed and focused in on herself.

The first immediate change she felt was the corruption in her Chakra Network. Her chakra was being mixed with three different energy's, one she easily recognised as Orochimaru's, though it wasn't making much progress into her system thanks to her magic naturally holding it back. The next was a little harder to identify, but the way it resonated against her magic told her exactly what she needed.

Senjutsu, true nature energy that sung to her magic in a twisted symphony.

Personally, Twilight saw this mark as a work of art, its main purpose allows for anyone branded to achieve some of the bonuses of **Sage Mode** without the massive amount of training needed, albeit with the cost of reduced sanity and increased aggression. But both of those downsides should be avoidably through great mental discipline… or a second personality in your head to help control those emotions… possibly… okay she had no idea…

The last energy was Sasuke's, but that was heavily imbedded into her Chakra network, strong enough that her very Chakra nature changed to accommodate the changes brought by the Curse Seal. Her **Doton** nature had literally been burned from her body as the Uchiha's **Katon** nature carved its way in and another nature took hold in her system.

Then the next issue, that she refused to believe was an issue, was her odd **Sharingan**. From what she could tell was that her body was being forced by something now deeply ingrained into her genetic data, to replicate the effects and ability's in her own eyes.

That could be a problem… Her eyes weren't naturally made for these abilities and functions, in the long run, her eyes could possibly suffer damage due to the elevated strain these conditions would cause.

So, the main issue would be her eyes, she would need to refrain from using her eyes for extended periods of times… but that wouldn't mean she wouldn't abuse it… safely.

That also lead to the next issue, something deep inside the mark was mutagenic in nature, which is what caused her fake Sharingan. And as her **Shikotsumyaku** , while not genetic, does need her genetic data to wield it properly to grow her extra bones. And while she didn't need the genetic data of her eyes to use it, the mutagenic content in the mark was shifting her genetic data in such a way that the already unstable artificial bloodline was now in a critical state.

Smirking, she opened her eyes and stared down at her own shadow, seeing it grinning back at herself should have unsettled her… but she found comfort in the twisted darkness cast by her body.

She didn't even flinch as the shadow began to twitch and warp. **"Well my darling, me. We has't some time before the next stage, what shalt we doth, me?"** Her other half asked through their shadow, her voice sounding throughout the room from no real source.

"We both know that answer my dear, we are our self after all." She replied to the shadow as both her and her shadow's eyes closed as they dived into their own subconscious.

 **? – ? – ?**

Twilight's face remained impassive as she floated through the dark recesses of her mind, her mental body once again being her aged one that she had during the curse mark integration. The eternal black sea spanning for miles and miles, so dark that it refused to reflect the purple stars shining above her.

She drifted just above the surface of the water, never touching or disturbing. Her destination solidly in mind as she picked up speed, finally disturbing the great ocean under her.

Her minds defences were unique. Normally, one creates something solid to protect their minds, such as a wall or a maze to keep themselves safe. Twilight decided to do things differently, for each of the stars above her head, resided a crystal or gem at the bottom of the ocean floor that contained all her memories. But the fact was that the Ocean itself reached close to 11,000 meters deep, at that level the water pressure would be that strong that no normal person could even pray to survive, never mind move and search. That's where the rules of her mind would take effect. Her entire mind's reality was one main rule, realism... Her original concept of reality, which didn't include the energy of Chakra, and as Ninja's didn't have magic, they wouldn't be able to use their powers.

No matter who enters her mind, they would need to be able to hold their breath and stand the pressure long enough to even be able to get to see her true mind… In the end, they would all be crushed by it power.

After a few minutes, she came to a stop above the great sea, readjusting herself she waited for a moment before diving straight into the ocean below her. The best part about her mind was that she was God, the rules would only bend and break to her will.

So, when she submerged, she instantly began plummeting into the deep abyss below with no resistance from the water. She fell for second after second, the already dark ocean becoming more and more bleak. The darkness seemed to last forever, never ending and never beginning, just there.

Slowly, a golden light shined from the darkness. She slowed her decent, slowly reapplying the water's resistance to herself. After a while, she came to a stop before a large, glowing golden orb.

Wasting no time, she closed her eyes and walked through golden bubbles exterior.

Opening her eyes, they were greeted to a large white snake who's scales seemed to be made of countless more small snakes. A twisted version of Orochimaru's face was framed by a great mane of brown hair. This… abomination of a creature was strung up in the air by millions of stands of purple hair leading into the golden walls of the sphere.

Twilight showed no inclination of fear or hesitation as she drifted towards the thrashing creature.

"What isss thisss!?" The creature hissed as more and more strands of hair shot from the walls at him. She watched in interest as each strand targeted one of the many snake heads jutting from his body.

"Well, Orochimaru…" She called, drawing the monstrosity attention. "We, believe you are somewhere you very well shouldn't be." She drawled as the strands of hair began to pull against his scales, ceasing any movement he could make.

"Do you not know who I am?! Release me at onccce!" It demanded as it glared at her, before its eyes widened when a second, inverted copy of Twilight seemed to walk out of her body, standing next to the host with glowing red eyes.

 **"He does talk a lot, doesn't he darling?"** He half asked with a mocking tone as they began circling him.

"Yes. Yes, he does darling." She replied as they both started to come closer to the beast. "After he has taken so much for us, and dared to brand us like property." She said as she playfully pulled on one of the strands, making Orochimaru cry in pain as the snake head it was attached to was decapitated.

Orochimaru began looking at all the hair strands with great worry as he realised just how dangerous they really were.

Twilight watched as the decapitated head dissolved into black particles and flowed across the hair strand straight to her. She shuddered as it passed through her, images and thoughts foreign to her flashing into her mind's eye.

Taking a few moments to adjust herself, she looked to her other half who looked just as confused, that is until they both grinned madly.

Acting with haste, both ponies made human commanded the strings to wrap around their fingers, reminiscent of a twisted marionette.

With the twins both sharing slightly deranged grins, they began pulling the hair in opposite directions. Orochimaru screamed in pain and agony as more and more snake heads were sheered straight from his body. The agony seemed to last forever as more and more of himself was grated away from his soul.

" **Y** o **u** r **s** o **u** l **b** e **l** o **n** g **s** t **o** u **s**!" Both Twilight and her other screamed in rage as they slowly stripped more and more of the monster memory's, thoughts, feelings and soul away from it and into their self.

As more and more memories flooded into her mind, the two pulled harder and harder. Straining their mind and soul to their most extreme. With one final scream, in both pain and victory, Orochimaru exploded into black dust that shot at both her and her double.

The world began to swim as both swayed before blacking out, their last conscious site being the many thousand threads of hair shooting into their reflections scalps.

 **Forest of Death – Centre Tower – End of the Second Exam**

Twilight winced at the bright lights around her, her head throbbing in pain as more memories tore through her mind. She had been close to comatose since she and her other had absorbed Orochimaru's soul fragment. It had taken every ounce of her bodies control not to puke at the sick and deprived experiments the snake had performed… but while she was truly disgusted by him, his memories held an actual treasure trove of forbidden knowledge that she would endure the sick memories for.

Unfortunately, due to the assimilation of fifty-one years' worth of memories left her with a large influx of foreign emotions that destroyed her already fragile control over her emotions, by absorbing his soul, she had begun to take on more of his less desirable quality's. Such as his thirst for knowledge, while she already had this, his own being added sent her own desires to untold levels. This, in-turn gave her a great deal of greed, oh how that emotion bubbled under her skin as she looked at things that caught her attention, every instinct she and her other had screamed to make the object of their desire theirs.

And when she saw a Kekkei Genkai user, it took every ounce of her control not to do… unspeakable things to them, dissect them, experiment, learn everything she could about how they work.

It was becoming unbearable. An itch that she couldn't scratch, a tick that remain just out of reach.

She twitched as another sick experiment carved its way through her mind. She growled silently as she stood between her fellow Genin hopefuls.

"Alright, maggots! To those of you that made it this far; congrats. You're the cream of this crappy ass crop. However, from here on is where things get interesting. Before we start though, the Hokage is going to give us a few words. The floor is all yours Hokage-Sama." Anko said, leaving the Genin in a sense of suspense and energy as she stepped aside for her leader.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage of Konoha, stepped forward and stood peaceably with a smile toward the Genin. Many of them that looked upon him saw a kindly old man but, not Twilight. No, with her mind and senses sharpened like a snake's she could feel the raw and intense power that had given the Old Man the title of "God of Shinobi". Twilight had to admit that the Hokage's power was intense, and with her Kagura Shingan and her memories of Orochimaru's experiences with him, she knew that he was truly a warrior to be feared.

She could see the old man's wisdom as he gazed at all the Chunin-hopefuls with an appraising, yet genuinely kind eyes.

With a brief pull of his pipe, Hiruzen Sarutobi went into explaining the true purpose of the Chunin Exams.

Twilight didn't even bat an eyelash when it was explained that the exams were merely a "lighter" alternative to all-out war between the many ninja villages which "would cause more unneeded bloodshed". She shook her head at the thought with a small sigh. All that would do was let anger simmer as more and more as more of the villages young would be killed off, eventually leading to an invisible war... either way, death would occur.

"Now to explain how these Preliminaries are going to proceed." Sarutobi started, only to be cut off by another voice; one which was coughing as the male spoke.

"Forgive me Hokage-Sama but, perhaps I believe I should be the one to explain this; seeing as I am the Proctor for this portion of the exams." A sickly voice called out as a body landed behind the elderly Hokage.

All the Genin turned to see a man dressed in the Jonin attire walk out. He wore his headband as a bandana and had large bags under his eyes indicating a lack of sleep. He coughed a few times into his hand, again indicating that he was very much sick. Twilight recognised him, a regular in the hospital, Hayate Geko. Someone who she would shamefully admit to being unable to help.

"Alright then, I'm Hayate Gekko, and I'll be the proctor of third portion of the exams. You will t-take turns b-battling in one-on-one p-preliminary matches until someone is d-defeated, unable to c-continue, or I stop the match. Any questions?" Hayate explained all the while coughing through his words.

"Will we be allowed to kill our opponents?" Gaara asked, his detached tone only compromised as he seemed to be fighting off the urge to shiver or moan under some form of pressure. Though it still caused many of those near him to silently pray that they didn't have to be the one to lose their lives at his hands.

Twilight frowned at Gaara's words, or more likely the feelings they aroused from her. Killing would be fun, and that scared and exited her greatly. Though she silently vowed the death of the Sound Genin team. She had assimilated enough of Orochimaru's memories and mind to know who they were, and what would happen should they fail their mission.

She would give them a mercy in death should she face them.

While she didn't really want to fight, this was the first time in years she would be able to measure her strength and progression against a native to this reality.

"Death of a c-combatant is authorised but should any p-proctor step in at any time the fight is over, we are here to help preserve your lives if possible." Hayate replied watching, subtly as relief sank into many of the Genin that were before him.

"You mean that we have to fight right now? Come on, man. A lot of us just got here and we're worn out." Naruto complained.

"Another attribute of the third portion of the Chunin Exam is to tests a shinobi's ability to adapt and work under pressure, and fatigue. If you can do neither, then you don't deserve to become a Chunin in any village." Hayate replied while glancing at the Genin, speaking the entire time without a cough.

Funny, he seemed more confident after that reply.

"Are there any more questions? No? Good, then let the Preliminary Tournament of the Chunin Exams begin!" Hayate said, declaring the start of the third exam.

Twilight ignored the mindless prattle of the others as she focused in on Kabuto as he bailed out of the exam. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him now knowing the entire truth behind his corruption, but she didn't have anything that would help him… The only way that he could ever be able to be himself, truly, would be for himself to realise it.

She silently made her way up to the rafters, silently waiting the coming matches.

 **Sasuke Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akadō**

"Interesting…" Twilight muttered at the first fight. From what little memories she had finished assimilating from Orochimaru, she knew he was one of his agents, though she had yet to assimilate any knowledge to do with his abilities.

She silently sent Charka into her eye's while squinting, hiding the activation of her **Sharingan**. This fight would be interesting, and from what she did know from Orochimaru's memories was that this match was fixed to happen to try and force Sasuke to use the Curse-Mark. And as he didn't have the seal on him the outcome would be much different from what was originally expected.

Both Genin stared off one another, Sasuke's expression being a frown as he waited for the match to begin. Yoroi's being unreadable simply because most of his face vas hidden behind his glasses and mask.

"If both competitors are ready… Begin!" Hayate shouted before he jumped away.

Sasuke wasted no time, **Sharingan** blaring to life his hands became a blur of movement untraceable to the other Genin. But thanks to Twilight's speed training and her new **Sharingan** , they moved at a snail's pace, and so for the first time, Twilight copied a Jutsu.

 ** _Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger_**

" **Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu** (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)!" He shouted as he released a great ball of fire straight at Yoroi. The other Konoha Genin seemed initially shocked that such a technique was even being used.

So, he was only just able to jump out of the way, but still suffered some burns along the left side of his body and clothes. He recovered quickly and sprinted towards the Uchiha, his burnt hand visible glowing with Chakra.

Sasuke, watched as the purple clad-nin rushed him, brandished a Kunai in anticipation. Just before Yoroi's outstretched arm could touch Sasuke, he manoeuvred to the side and slashed at the man's outstretched arm, easily slicing through the man's burnt flesh and tendons, rendering the arm useless.

But still, the glowing hand grazed the Uchiha's hair.

Twilight frowned as she watched Sasuke's colourful Chakra jump from his body into the burnt male's body. She had never considered the concept of absorbing the energy of another, and by the looks of it, Yoroi's own Chakra levels were increasing through the absorption.

Sasuke stumbled from the drain but was quick to put distance between them.

"W-what happened? Sasuke looks so tired suddenly?" Sakura mumbled to no one.

"Yoroi is absorbing _Sasuke's_ Chakra through touch..." Twilight began while almost growling out his name. "Chakra is made of the Spiritual and Physical attributes of the body… Should be obvious that one would become physically _drained_ , should their _physical_ energy be drained." She said in an almost monotone with an obvious annoyed undertone. No one could see her eyes, but they could tell she was close to sneering at the pink haired girl.

Twilight scoffed, deactivating her eyes she looked down upon the girl. "And you pride yourself on apparently being the _smartest_ _Kunoichi_." She said as she turned her eyes back to the match, squinting again.

Sakura huffed at the jab but unfortunately understood where she stood when it came to Ino, plus, she did not want to be on the receiving end of the apparently unstable girl's ire… Especially after the scene in the forest a few days ago.

"A-a-are your eyes okay Ino?" Choji asked with a little fear and hesitance.

Twilight silently nodded as she watched Yoroi run straight at Sasuke, his only functional arm glowing with Chakra.

Her eyes widened in shock, revealing her eyes for a moment before hiding them again, as Sasuke kicked Yoroi into the air and in a single blur of movement appeared behind the flying Genin, perfectly mimicking his Yoroi's body position.

' _The_ _ **Kage Buyō**_ _(Leaf Shadow Dance)? When in Celestia's name- Ah, the start of the exams you tangled with Lee, didn't you Sasuke?_ ' Twilight though in amusement as she and her other self giggled a little at the situation. Here they were, copying a technique from a copier who copied it from another.

She watched as Sasuke kicked Yoroi's side, then used his body as an anchor to swing back, increasing the power of his spin as he sent a punch to his face, continuing his assault he another kick straight into the purple clad man's chest, and finally sent a kick into his stomach. " **Shishi Rendan** (Lions Barrage)!" Sasuke called out as he sent Yoroi into the floor, the force of each hit and the natural pull of gravity sent him crashing into the ground with a sickening crack.

"Match!" Hayate called as he found Yoroi unconscious from the onslaught of kicks. "Winner is Sasuke Uchiha." He announced as Yoroi was hauled out of the arena as Sasuke made his way up to the stands.

Twilight glared at him as he passed by, summoning all the killing intent she could without activating the Curse Mark on her neck or any of the corrupted energies inside her body. "Watch where you step, _Uchiha_." She hissed into his ear, making him quickly scamper away in a cold sweat. The various Jonin around the room looked at her with disapproving frowns or confused looks.

 **Zaku Abumi vs. Shino Aburame**

Twilight didn't pay too much mind to this fight, after all, neither had any techniques she could use, and one was a cripple by her hand. Though she would admit that Shino's strategy was truly incredible… and predictably it got him the match.

Though one thing she and her other had to agree on was the decision to try and find out how the Aburame Clan created such a symbiosis, the simple relationship the host and insect held was incredible… The only problem with finding this out was that it was a closely guarded clan secret, along with the fact she wouldn't be able to use the mind transfer due to the fact the **Kikaichū** (Parasitic Destruction Insects) would rapidly eat her invading chakra… An issue for another time.

Match to Shino Aburame.

 **Misumi Tsurugi vs. Kankurō**

Twilight paid rapt attention to this fight, mainly how there were tiny threads of Chakra strung through the air between Kankurō's joints and the bundle he dropped in apparent anger. Simple deduction led her to knowing he was using the famous **Kugutsutsukai** (Art of the Puppet Technique) of Suna.

Other than the strange body of Misumi and the puppetry technique, nothing interested her of this fight. Though she suppressed a smile at Misumi's unfortunate luck when the puppet released the many blades it had hidden into his body.

Match to Kankurō.

 **Sakura Haruno vs. Temari**

It wasn't even a fight, Sakura used subpar skills that the more seasoned Kunoichi easy batted aside with ease. Temari showcased her mastery over the **Fūton** (Wind Release) nature, being able to summon walls of wind that easily pushed the fan girl back each time she tried to go on the offensive. She didn't even need to use her **Kyodai Sensu** (Giant Folding Fan) as an amplifier… Summery, Sakura showed a truly disappointing front for Kunoichi in Konoha.

Match to Temari.

 **Shikamaru Nara vs Kin Tsuchi**

She paid great attention to both Kin and Shikamaru, mainly the different ways both Genin utilized the Inton element. Kin's use of disorienting Genjutsu with her bells and Senbon would be something that she would replicate later, then there was Shikamaru's usage to manipulate his shadow along the wire's own shadow to hide his attack.

Replicating the Nara's **Kagemane no Jutsu** (Ninja Art: Shadow Possession Technique) would be tricky, but with her other's apparent ability to communicate through their shadow they might be able to pull it off.

Match to Shikamaru Nara.

 **Naruto Uzumaki vs. Kiba Inuzuka**

They really couldn't get anything out of this fight… Naruto won… Thanks to passing gas… He didn't even use anything she taught him!

Match to Naruto Uzumaki.

 **Hinata Hyūga vs. Neji Hyūga**

They couldn't really say too much on this fight, both her and her double unintentionally seeing their selves and Shining Armor in the positions on Neji and Hinata respectively, so they focussed on copying and analysing the Hyūga's **Jūken** (Gentle Fist), for some reason the thought of them holding such anger to Armor seemed unreasonable to them… That lasted for close to a minuet as they realised that thanks to his ignorance they had to be in this Tartarus damn world, their anger only increased.

Match to Neji Hyūga.

 **Gaara vs. Rock Lee**

Now that was a fight, watching a monster of sand and a monster of strength truly showed the true strength of the titans in this competition. The unrelenting force provided by Lee clashing against the immoveable walls of sand that blocked the unrelenting assault.

The way that both Genin continued to pound on each other was truly a sight, and when Lee finally began to let the big guns out, the **Hachimon** (The Eight Inner Gates). The amount of raw chakra the green clad boy released from simply opening three gates was intense, but opening five was almost too much.

It took much self-control not to look away from the blinding light, speed and power he exerted in his goal to prove his worth, being able to just track the green beast's afterimages thanks to her Sharingan, though she would admit to a strange itching forming in the back of her ocular organs from trying to track him.

But Gaara's own incredible sand defences were just strong enough and versatile enough to allow him to survive the onslaught from the green monster, but not without sustaining heavy damages from the **Gōken** (Strong Fist) style.

Then the unthinkable. Lee, who had since passed out from the intense pain he was experiencing, stood back up. His eyes devoid of life as his body subconsciously took his battle stance.

Twilight was almost sad that she had used her eyes to copy Lee's hard-work, but it seemed like she might possibly need that knowledge and style soon. Though she would still need to go through a great amount of training to be able to match his level of power and his access to the **Hachimon**.

Though, thanks to the fight she received a new outlook to Gaara's chakra, more specifically how it functions. Thanks to her new eye's, she could see three types of chakra laid into the sand. His, the Ichibi's, and another that seemed to push against the grains, mainly when Gaara entered a state of danger… That information would be useful.

Match to Gaara.

 **Dosu Kinuta vs. Chōji Akimichi**

The simple fact that Chōji had to be bribed with food was extraordinarily embarrassing. And then him falling for Dosu's obvious goad into attacking without thinking. Watching as Dosu used Chōji's own water mass to transfer his weapons effects throughout his body, ending the match in one move.

Match to Dosu Kinuta.

 **Tenten vs. Ino Yamanaka**

Twilight's only visible reaction to the selection was a frown as her normal eye's narrowed at the screen. She silently made her way down to the arena floor without any emotions faltering her steps. Tenten hesitantly made her way down to the arena, any confidence once held being replaced with fear and unease.

Twilight silently stared at her opponent, while confident that she could win this fight, she would be incredibly limited as she still wouldn't be able to properly utilize large amounts of her chakra without risking activating the Curse Seal and she couldn't cast any magic or risk revealing her eyes to more people.

"Are both c-combatants ready?" Hayate coughed. He received two nods.

"Begin!" He called out before he vanished.

Tenten leapt into the air, launching shurikens straight at her. Twilight let no emotion bleed through as her left arm blurred a fraction of a second before they could hit, everyone stared at the air… The shuriken had had vanished.

Twilight's eyes met Tenten's as she landed. She raised her arm, showing the thrown shuriken in her hand. "I know you better than that." She said with her bored voice reverberating through the concreate room. She dropped the metal throwing stars to the ground, letting their metal bodies clink against the stone.

Tenten frowned as she pulled out a scroll and began to rapidly unseal more and more weapons, hurtling them straight at her opponent.

Twilight unknowingly smirked as she kicked one of the discarded stars into her hand. Spinning the bladed star in-between her fingers, she sent it flying in-between the oncoming wave of steel before she began to spin herself through the wave of metal, dodging between each blade as she used a caught Kunai to deflect a few others. He body bending at unnatural angles as she used the Kunai to help deflect some of the incoming weapons.

The Shuriken she sent flying soared rapidly at Tenten, slicing straight through the scroll and carving a thin cut across her cheek, shocking her out of her attack.

Twilight lost her smirk as she watched Tenten take a shocked step back. "What are you doing?" She asked as she began stepping through strewn about weapons. "This is the first time in years-" She began as she picked up her pace, now kicking the weapons from her path. "- that we have been able to finally test ourselves against each other." She continued as her voice began to raise, her face beginning to warp from its neutral frown to a twisted sneer. "What was it you said to me? That we were rivals? If that's true, then we should be going all out!" She almost screamed as she came to a stop a few feet away.

Her twisted sneer vanished as a serene smile took over her features. "So, send your best. Test yourself against me. I know you have stronger moves." She purred as she brought the stolen Kunai to her mouth and licked the blade in an eerily similar way to how a pair of certain snake themed Ninja would.

Tenten was shaking as silence filled the room. No one dared to move. Reactions were varying across the room.

Tenten's shaking continued to worsen. Her eyes darting across Twilight's form with great fear. She gipped a few times as cold sweat trailed from her face. With a scream of fear, she leapt into the air as she screamed: " **Sōshōryū** (Ninja Art: Rising Twin Dragons)!"

Twilight twitched as she watched the inhuman amount of weapons rain down on her. Perhaps acting on Orochimaru's impulses was the wrong choice.

Acting with haste, she and her other began to mould their magic through their body. Instantly, an almost invisible sparkling purple glow encased her body. Against her will, her body stepped out of the way of every blade, moving at untraceable speeds. And when she couldn't physically move and avoid the weapon, the purple glow would push the weapon away. Not that anyone other than a select few Shinobi in the room could tell, she became a literal blur the whole time her feet never moving unless physically needing to.

This continued for about a minute, in which Twilight had already been obscured in a large dust could by the weapons. As quickly as it began, the barrage of weapons stopped, Tenten sticking to the ceiling as she waited for the cloud to clear.

Everyone waited with bated breath, a small explosion of smoke drew everyone's attention at the top of the cloud. A single glowing Kunai sailed through the air, heading straight for Tenten.

Tenten easily dodged the obvious attack.

Time slowed to a crawl as the glowing purple energy surrounding the Kunai crawled from the airborne blade, the energy forming an outline.

A left arm first, a fist gripping the handle. Followed by a torso, another arm, legs and finally a head.

With a final flash of purple light, the outline filled with the form of Twilight Sparkle.

Time seemed to come to a complete stop. Tenten's eyes stared with uncomprehending shock into Twilight's cold eyes.

They hung there, for a small moment, just staring.

Time started again, and with a kick against a platform of mana under her foot. Twilight sent herself spinning, the Kunai acting like a sawblade as she used part of Kiba's **Tsūga** (Passing Fang), which she had already copied along with the **Shikyaku no Jutsu** (Four Legs Technique), to spin at ferocious speeds.

Tenten held her arms up in defence. She screamed in pain as the blade rapidly shredded the skin along her arms.

With a final kick, Twilight sent her opponent flying into the rafters, away from the weapons laid floor below.

Twilight ignored the awed and astonished looks she received from the surrounding Ninja.

' _Did we just do, what I think we did?_ ' She asked to her split self. What she was referring to was the fact that she and her other had channelled their magic through their body in the exact same way as her Chakra did when she used the **Shunshin** technique. Allowing her body to move at the speed the technique allowed, but only in the purpose of defence, as it uses the Magic's desire to protect its host to forcefully move the host out of the way.

Then she simply hooked a teleportation spell to her Kunai… Not going to be able to hide that from the Ninja. But she would admit that the mana cost for the spell was significantly less than normal when she hooked it to the object.

' **Yes, we art evolving now.** ' Her other responded to her in a quite whisper, soothing her worries with its haunting tone.

She silently waited for the Chunin to clear all of the weapons from the arena, silently contemplating a cover story for her teleportation spell.

She watched silently as the other winners all took position in the arena next to her.

"Okay, now the preliminaries are over, will all the winners please take a number from the bowl as it comes around." The Hokage commanded as his gaze slid over them all, his eyes lingering for a moment on her before moving on. She silently frowned at the bowl as it came around them all.

1: Dosu

2: Gaara

3: Shikamaru

4: Temari

5: Neji

6: Naruto

7: Sasuke

8: Ino

9: Kankuro

10: Shino

"The final matches shall be the following." The Hokage called as a Chunin finished writing on a white board.

Dosu vs Gaara

Shikamaru vs Temari

Neji vs Naruto

Sasuke vs Ino

Kankurō vs Shino

"These are the Matches that shall be held in a months' time. Use this time to rest, train and prepare yourselves." The aged shinobi called to the confused faces. "You will participate in a full tournament, winners of those battles will progress and continue. Use this month wisely, you are all dismissed." He finished as he walked out the arena.

Twilight watched him, she noticed an almost invisible twitch of his hand.

Blinding pain seared through her stomach before her vision span, a blank snow-white mask filled her vision before darkness threatened to claim her. She could feel the invading Chakra trying to force her conscious mind down.

Her body began to physically glow purple as she resisted.

Forcing her magic through her Chakra network she rapidly purged the invading energy from her system in a large burst of energy.

Seeping her mana into her skin, she instantly shifted its structure into fire.

She heard a satisfying cry of pain as her skin rapidly reached over 400 °C. Tumbling to the ground, she desperately gasped for air as she rapidly cooled her body by flooding it with water Chakra. She cringed as she kept licking her lips in a futile attempt at restoring the evaporated liquids in her body.

She slowly stood and found herself in the one place she didn't want to see.

"Greetings… Hokage-Sama." She croaked out her now dry throat to the man with the stone gaze.

"Ino… You are an enigma." His cold voice swept over her.

Twilight silently charged a teleport, never hurt to be prepared.

"I have… been called… many things before…" She rasped as she watched a purple haired ANBU silently nurse her visible singed hands. "That's… probably… one of the tamer ones." She said as she turned back to the Hokage.

Expanding her **Kagura Shingan** , she instantly took notice of the additional signature outside the giant windows.

"Why don't… you come in…" She rasped out again, as she slowly unsealed a bottle of water from her arm's storage scroll along with a small bottle of burn cream. She silently tossed the bottle of cream to the ANBU member as she greedily chugged the water from the bottle.

In a poof of smoke, a tall and well-built man with fair skin appeared on top of an orange toad. He had a wart on the left side of his nose and waist-length, spiky white hair that was tied back into a pony tail, with two shoulder-length bangs framing his face. There were red lines under his eyes which extended down his face. His attire consisted of a green short shirt kimono and matching pants, under which he wore mesh armour that she could see his wrists and ankles. He also had hand guards, a black belt, wooden sandals, and a red haori with two yellow circles on each side. A large scroll resided on his back, he wore a horned forehead protector with the kanji for "oil" (油, abura).

"I am the sage of the east, warrior of the west!" He chanted as he struck some strange poses on top of the toad. "Women sing of my greatness, and lust for my-" He never got to finish before he was sent flying from the toad by a large stream of water originating from Twilight's mouth.

Twilight glared as she silently sealed the empty bottle away as she retrieved another. "Don't speak like that you pervert." She commented as she uncapped the bottle. "I know who you are Jiraiya." She said before she drained the bottle. "Now why don't we get to business, I don't think a simple Genin warrants the attention of a Sannin, a Kage and five ANBU." She commented as she sat down on the lone chair facing the elderly Kage.

Sarutobi frowned at her. "You can sense my hidden guard?" He asked. "The more I learn about you the more I find I am missing… Can you please explain how you can perform the **Hiraishin** (Flying Thunder God)?" He asked with narrowed eyes as he slowly began to seep killing intent into the room.

Jiraiya, having recovered, jumped right in front of the girl and grabbed her by her shoulders. "How can you use **Senjutsu**!?" He almost screamed at her with his eyes wide.

Twilight blinked as she stopped drinking her water. Calmly lowering the bottle from her mouth, she stared at toad-nin holding her before she spat all the water still in her mouth onto his face.

The aged Hokage cracked a small smile at the way Twilight was treating Jiraiya, reminding him bitter sweet memories of his old team.

"Get off me. I don't feel comfortable with a known pervert touching me." She commented calmly. And to her disbelief, the purple haired ANBU laughed as she continued to apply the burn cream.

Jiraiya quickly jumped away as if burned.

Twilight giggled at the look on his face. "You know that you could have asked me here… no need to kidnap me from the arena." She said as she calmly sat on the sofa next to the ANBU agent. "Sorry about… burning you. But to be fair you scared the shit out of me and tried to knock me out and I panicked." She apologised with a shrug towards the emotionless mask.

The ANBU stared at her for a moment before silently nodding to her.

"Back to the topic at hand." Sarutobi called out, wanting to get back to the reason he wanted her here for. "How can you use the **Hiraishin** and apparently **Senjutsu** as well?" He asked as his face turned stone like once more.

Twilight sighed as she placed their plan to work.

 **"I believeth that I could be of assistance."** Her other's voice rang through the room as her shadow twisted and warped into twisted into a monstrous mockery of Twilight's form.

The Hokage and Toad Sage jumped to attention at the sight of the twisted shadow. The lone visible ANBU simply twisted her head in intrigue. Looking towards Twilight's eyes showed them to be glossed over with a red haze.

"What are you?" Hiruzen asked with dread and apprehension.

 **"I... am a fragment... or am I a whole?"** She mocked as her form slithered across the ground, defying every light source in the room. **"I am a monument to pain and tragedy, to betrayal and trust."** She riddled as she sent a tendril of shadow towards the aged leaders own.

Seeing it's action, he jumped to the other side of the room, moving his shadow away from the potential danger.

"Stop playing…" A female voice sounded, drawing the shadows attention back to the ANBU, who had a Tanto held to Twilight's neck.

 **"…"** The shadow glared at the elite Ninja while it's form slowly returned to Twilight's shape. **"What doth thee wanteth to know?"** It almost growled out.

"What are you?" The Hokage voiced again.

 **"I am Ino… and I am not her… I was manifested due to overstress and our evolution…"** The shadow explained cryptically. **"We evolved, our abilities art a result of this… But tis thanks to the Uchiha, that I was born… and that we now bare this mark."** The shadow continued as Twilight robotically revealed the **Ten no Juin** (Curse Mark).

Both Hiruzen and Jiraiya listened intently to the shadows speech, both trying to decipher the cryptic words. But both frowned at the sight of the cursed seal branded on the blonde's neck.

"What do you mean? Why is Sasuke the cause of your birth?" Jiraiya asked as he began to take out some kunai and a lot of ink.

 **"He used us an escape, when the snake man decided to part him with a gift."** The shadow stated as its form began to blur at the edges. **"I wast born from the betrayal… after all, I can nev'r betray her so I am her perfect companion, and she knoweth that I wilt concur with any plans she makes, for I am she and she is I… So, when I say that thee best putteth those sealing tools away, I knoweth she will agree."** She said before the shadow stopped flickering and the red haze over Twilight's eyes vanished.

"You come anywhere near me with that sealing equipment then I will follow through a threat I know you have heard before." Twilight said as she slowly raised her hand to push the sword away, using her magic to protect herself from the blade.

"As your Hokage I am ordering you to allow Jiraiya to seal that mark Ino." The aged leader commanded with a concerned voice. "It has been left unchecked for too long now."

"No." She replied simply as willed the Mark to begin spinning. "We have already achieved control of the seal, the parasite within was removed. Did you know that Orochimaru actually stores a fragment of his soul into his seals?" She asked rhetorically as she made it spin faster. "It's how he achieves his immortality. A back door into their soul and subconscious where they don't know how to fight, where he can take-over a new body to continue to live." She explained as the seal stopped spinning, and five white stars surrounded it, interlocked with white lines.

She smiled at the incomplete Cutie Mark surrounding the mark, it was simply a bit of magic that tinted her skin into that colour and shape. But with the magic running through the markings, Jiraiya would assume it to be a seal utilizing Senjutsu energy to keep it at bay.

"In regard to my evolution…" She started as she readjusted her clothes. "Have you ever heard the saying: 'Mind over matter'?" She asked, receiving blank looks from both the males and another unreadable look from the ANBU.

"To put it in layman's terms, if I can think it, and understand the science behind it, I can do it with Chakra and Senjutsu Chakra as long as I have access to enough." She explained the planned lie, it was one of the only ways she could without revealing her magic and her In'yōton.

Jiraiya looked slightly confused. "Then how did you use the **Hiraishin**?" He asked.

Twilight smirked as she silently teleported to the other side of the room, standing next to the Hokage. "It's simple if you have the know-how. I simply disassemble all of my atoms at once, and then instantly reform them in the destination of my choosing." She explained her lie as she began to fake pant in exertion.

"But as you can see it is rather taxing. But I will admit that connecting it to something coated in my energy makes it much easier to do, hence your mix-up with the **Hiraishin**." She explained before she sat back down on the sofa.

Sarutobi stared at the young girl in front of him, unable to detect any lie. Several aspects of her story mirrored that of Yakumo Kurama, mainly with the creation of another personality within' the child's mind. But at least this one seemed to be friendly with its host.

Naturally, several Yamanaka in the past had developed unique mind related abilities such as Telekinesis. Mainly through mental stress, but never had there been a case of such magnitude where the subject gained complete dominance over her own body's molecular structure.

Normally he would be more concerned with her mental health, but Yamanaka's held a policy to never enter the mind of someone with a split personality. This is due to the fact the other personality would have complete dominance in the mind, making mental screenings and therapy's impossible in this manner.

But with both personality's working together, she would be a complete power house. But a large flight risk should the personality's start fighting.

"Very well." He said, drawing everyone's attention. "You may go for now, I want you to know that this conversation isn't over. Due to the Chūnin exams I will be unable to continue this subject for a while. Once these exams are over we can organise for you to be tested and examined. Any new potential bloodline needs to be documented in full, so you will be monitored for the next month as you train." He said, instantly making her frown.

"You will also be monitored regarding the curse seal on your neck. Even if your claim to have dominated it, should you be caught using it then you will be detained for it to be sealed." He continued before he sighed and waved his arm.

"You are dismissed, be careful where you tread Ino. You are playing a dangerous game now." He remarked as age seemed to assault him spades, appearing to age by ten years.

Twilight said nothing as she walked to the door. Grasping the handle, she turned back to the old man and smiled. "Threats are useless when the game has been rigged against me from the start Hokage-Sama." She said smiling a bitter sweet smile. "I would keep an eye out for your treacherous student, I sense that he is still in the village." She remarked before she vanished in a flash of purple light, leaving the occupants to dwell on the meaning of her words.

 **Konoha – Sewers – 2 Days Later**

Twilight frowned as she sloshed through the knee-high waste. This was not where she wanted to be, but it was one of the few areas where she could get some privacy now that the Hokage had sent ANBU to watch her every move. She had only just managed to switch places with a Shadow Clone when she had gone into the bathroom.

A quick teleport later and she was wading through excrement and other things that she didn't want to consider thinking about. Her purpose in a sewer was very simple, privacy.

Many years ago, Orochimaru had set a base up down here before he needed to flee. But he had stopped using it when the research he was performing there reached a dead end. The only issue was that Orochimaru had forgot it's exact location, which meant that the absorbed soul fragment had also forgotten its location. The most she had been able to figure out was that it was under the Red-Light District of the village, which didn't really mean much as the tunnels spanned for miles under that area.

Twilight scowled as she felt something brush against her leg, this really wasn't what she wanted to be doing. Growing frustrated, she started releasing a wide circle of magic, pushing all of the waste and faecal matter away from her. Continuing her walk, she almost growled when she realised she had just circled around the tunnels.

Growing impatient, she expanded her **Kagura Shingan** to its absolute limit, easily reaching across seventy five percent of the village.

A small sliver of Chakra made her frown as she stared at the wall right next her. Placing her hand against it, she smirked as her chakra moved by itself, a long forgotten instinctual memory resurfacing from Orochimaru's fragment.

' **It appears that while he didn't remember where it was, his instinct did, my darling.** ' Her other's voice sounded in her head. ' **It is the reason we hath kept circling, we didn't knoweth where it was but his instinct, and in turn ours, didst.** ' She continued with a pleased tone.

"That's good and all, but we didn't have the time to waste searching for this place." She replied aloud to the voice in her head. "This is the closest of his hidden bases that could possibly have the materials we need to achieve full control over this seal, and a place to stay hidden." She added as the wall slid to the side, revealing a dark hallway.

She gladly walked into the darkness, a nice reprieve from the sewers. "From his memories, the Curse Seal works in two levels. An immature and a mature form." She said as she created a bright ball of light above her head, illuminating the corridor. "The immature form allows for a great power boost but leaves the user in a state of increased aggression as it carves its influence into the user. The Mature form allows for all the perks from the immature form without the drawbacks and allows for a greater boost in power along with a transformation that could also provide other ability's."

Reaching the only door in the long corridor, she calmly opened the door and cringed at the sight that greeted her. A full row of giant glass tubes filled with murky liquid lined the left wall. Inside each was a mockery of a human. Each corpse being horribly twisted in horrific ways, arms growing through ribs, skin twisted into grotesque scars that looked more like a burnt armour. Face's contorted in frozen agony with deforming bulbuses or smoothen skin hiding eyes, ears and in some cases their mouths and noses. Several of the limbs appeared to be transplants if the ugly scars and stiches meant anything.

Along the other side was a dust buried lab. Twilight smirked when her eyes landed on a shelf filled with a large assortment of Jars.

Walking over to the Jars, her magic sprang to work. The dust surrounding the room was pushed into piles before hovering down the corridor to be disposed of in the sewer. Several Bunsen burners flickered to life as a few dozen test tubes and holding apparatus floated to the table and began to assemble themselves.

Twilight ideally began to clean the dust from the various jars. Frowning at the large number of human organs preserved in the jars, she silently swore to the death of Orochimaru.

She spent close to half an hour, careful shifting through the dozens of jars, picking out jar after jar. Some containing rare plants, exotic materials and some less favourable human components.

Making the **Seishingan** (Mind Awakening Pill) was something she wouldn't want to normally do… mainly because of the shifty components needed to make the drug.

However, the natural maturity process of the seal would take too long for it to reach level 2. She simply didn't have multiple life times to wait for its corruption to reach its maximum level… only for it to then kill her. Hence the need of the drug, she needed it if she wanted to gain total dominance.

Then there was the **Shikokumujin** (Four Black Fogs Formation). Though she would be able to use Shadow Clones to cast it after swallowing the pill, that would be an absolute necessity. The false death state would be what would allow her body the chance to acclimate to the heightened mutagenic level without risking death.

The main issue of the drug was simple, it takes three full days of non-stop brewing to make.

Opening the first jar, she frowned at the human lung in the preservation liquid.

This is going to be a long three days.

 **Konoha – Sewers-Twilight's Base – 4 Days Later**

Twilight groaned from her position in the lone chair of the now clean and sanitised lab. She had managed to speed up the creation of the drug to two days instead of three when she realised that segments of the drug could be done then combined carefully. This lead to a slightly more stable version of the drug when she compared It to Orochimaru's memories.

She had already swallowed the pill and been through the **Shikokumujin**. She had yet to activate the matured seal after her initial transformation, not really having a need to enter it now. Since then she had been cleaning and sterilising the lab.

She had disposed of the corpses with the **Gōkakyū**. And then promptly coughed up a lung worth of ash from her inexperience with **Katon** based techniques. She had then cleaned the glass tubes and filed them with sterile water.

She had no real purpose for them but the scientist inside her refused to let good lab equipment be neglected.

The reason as to her groans was due to her trying to access her new Raiton Nature, as she was very limited to the number of users of that Nature in Konoha. She was still recovering from repeated, uncontrolled shocks.

Her fast healing did nothing for the repeated electronic charges going through her nerve system. Though she had learnt how to change her chakra nature to **Raiton** , so she could at least say that she had made progress.

Whilst recovering, she had begun reading through Orochimaru's notes and research. And she had to begrudgingly admit that he was a genius.

Before he truly began his research into immortality, he had first been looking into grafting the flesh of others into his body to attempt to gain their ability's. He first started with simple, small samples. But eventually he began to experiment with transplanting entire limbs.

While she didn't hold any interest in grafting another's flesh or limbs onto herself, she was fascinated by the level of detail he had analysed all the different connections and nerves that is used by the limbs.

If used right she could transplant anyone's limb onto herself.

Not that she would. Instead, her idea was much different.

In Suna, there had been accounts of people using Puppet limbs and Chakra Strings as a form of prosthesis.

Her theory was that she would be able to use the research to create even more advanced prosthetics that would interpret all the different signals that are normally associated with the limbs. The only issue was that she lacked the technology to do that.

But that simply gave her a goal to reach for.

Hence her next field of development: Technomagic.

And thanks to her lie about her ability's, she could always say that any creations she makes would be a result of her _bloodline_ , not that she would have time for it till after the finals.

But for the next month.

Physically, she only really needed to keep her standard exercise routine up during the rest of the month. For her Jutsu and Chakra training she could send out some of her Shadow clones.

Five each for her **Suiton** , **Katon** and **Raiton** natures. Another five for **Genjutsu** training with five more for supplementary techniques. After two hours of training, one clone from each group would dispel, sharing the experience with others, allowing the other clones to then capitalize on that training.

The idea being that once the last clone popped, instead of receiving five sets of the exact same memories and experiences, she would receive a single experience from each group she would receive thirty hours of rapidly adapting experiences from each group.

She herself would then be exercising while raiding the Yamanaka's libraries for new techniques to give to her clones. Luckily, she was exempt from working at the hospital for the next month, so she had plenty of free time.

Groaning again in phantom pains, she sealed the lab down and created a shadow clone which immediately popped. Sending a message to the clone in the Yamanaka compound to return to the bathroom.

Waiting five minutes, she held her head in considerable pain when the clone dispelled, sending many memories straight into her head.

She spent a few moments nursing her headache before she teleported out to the bathroom.

She smirked as she sensed the same ANBU from before watching the bathroom. Deciding to be a bit annoying, she teleported across the village into a darkened ally next to the Konoha hot springs, leaving the ANBU to stew outside the bathroom.

A few minutes later she was sighing happily as she submersed herself in the medicinal waters… but it didn't last long as she and the other girls heard loud shouts from the other side of the walls surrounding the springs.

She silently watched as the women began to congregate to a specific section of the walls, now clad in towels and all having wooden buckets with auras of malice surrounding them.

Not wanting to be bothered any further she fully submersed herself in the water, using her **Suiton** nature to pull oxygen out of the water and into her nose, allowing her to faux breath underwater. It would only last for about twenty minutes, but it would let her wait-out whatever was happening above her.

After all, she wouldn't have much time to rest in the following month.

Her peaceful respite lasted for about twelve minuets when a shadow blocked out the sun from water. Reluctantly, she breached the surface and found herself face to mask with the purple haired ANBU.

"… You're a sensor, aren't you?" She asked already knowing the answer.

The Nin said nothing as she silently wagged her finger in a patronising manner as if to say she had been naughty… which was technically true.

Twilight frowned at the action as her eyes jumped to the Tanto on her back.

"How about a deal?" She asked to the Silent Nin. The only reaction she received was her head tilting to the side.

"We make your job easy, you will be able to watch us 24/7 all you want, and we won't run or Teleport anywhere." She said, grabbing her attention instantly. "In return, you teach us **Kenjutsu** (Sword Technique) for the next month." She bargained as she pushed herself out of the water.

The masked head didn't move for a few moments before she silently nodded her head. "Get dressed and we will begin." She commanded as she began walking towards the exit. "As punishment for trying to escape me, I will work you into the ground." She said as she left the baths.

Twilight smiled as she walked to the dressing room. This would at least allow her to fix her inability to wield the Kiba somewhat, plus it would help with her physical conditioning whilst her clones honed her Jutsu.

She was halfway through dressing before she realised that she had referred to herself as "we" whilst she talked with the ANBU. Perhaps she and her other had begun to synchronize more since they used the **Seishingan**? They did often find themselves thinking the same things at the same time, not needing to discuss things as often as she used to.

They were still two separate entity's, but the line between them was defiantly blurred. But they both still took great comfort from each other when they ultimately had bouts of home sickness and depression.

Hey, you don't get abandoned, forced through an excruciating experience, then forced to kill without making more than a few mental issues.

' **Ada**.' Her others voice called from their subconscious… ' **My name, it will be Ada**.'

"Ada… I like that name. It fits you." Twilight replied as she finished dressing.

' **It fits** ** _us_** **, darling. For we are each other and one.** ' Ada responded as Twilight left the Springs.

Spotting the ANBU waiting for her across the street, she silently grabbed her arm and Teleported them straight to an abandoned training field.

She dropped to the ground, narrowly dodging the blunt-side of the taller women's sword.

Twilight stared at the visibly sick looking agent. "We are going to assume that you didn't like the Teleportation?" She asked rhetorically, drawing a very annoyed look from agent.

"Do not. Do that again." The ANBU ordered irritably as she reluctantly sheathed her sword.

Twilight smirked as she silently unsealed the Kiba blades and held the two loosely in her hands.

"We understand that you specialize with a single blade, so would you not be able to teach us how to utilize a dual stance?" She asked as she examined the lightning fangs and experimentally span them in her hands.

The agent re-drew her sword. "I shall teach you the basics; how to hold a sword, how to move and how to read your opponent's movements. You shall be responsible for developing your own style." She said as she very obviously made a show of how she held the sword.

"One moment." Twilight spoke up as she stabbed the two lightning swords into the ground and made cross seal with her fingers. Twenty-five poofs of smoke exploded from around her, a mass of blurs vanished into the trees without a sound.

Pulling the swords from the ground, she squared against the agent, her **Sharingan** blaring to life behind half squinted eyes.

Her mind began breaking down the assassin's stance. Slowly, slightly unsure, she began to adjust her own stance. Her legs widening a little, her left arm raised mimicking the ANBU's stance slightly uneasily, mainly due to the agent not taking a dual wield stance.

"Now, I want you to come at me with everything you have. I need to see your raw form and ability." The ANBU commanded as she gripped the sword.

For a second, Twilight and Ada felt nervous. For a second, before they felt their gut suddenly lurch as their vision blurred as an unwilling chuckle escaped their throat and one eye clouded red.

"Hehehehe-" She giggled as her stance loosened and she held the swords in a slack grip. "-hahaha." She laughed as she wobbled side to side in a drunken fashion, slowly walking towards the confused agent.

"Y **ou** k **now** wh **at's** **fun** ny?" They asked as their voices overlaid upon one another. "T **HAT** T **HI** S **IS** NT FUN **NY**!" They screamed as they suddenly rocketed at the ANBU, blades screeching through the air with lethal intent. Any sort of kata form vanished as their body slashed at the Kunoichi's guard sporadically.

The purple haired woman said nothing as she deflected the blows one after the other. After a solid minuet of blocking the insane girls… girl's blows? _'This is going to be a long month.'_ She thought bitterly as she watched Ino shift from a laughing monster to a weeping girl... Who sounded scarily like a wolf as she wept.

 **Note: This is the last update for a while... as I have literally only just started the next chapter... I haven't even selected a name for it yet. One good thing is that I know you guys won't ever guess where this story goes, because it changes day to day in my head.**


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